San Francisco Giants’ Dominic Smith, center, celebrates after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)

By Lincoln Juarez

SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants demolished Orioles pitching Friday night, knocking the ball all over the yard. They set a new season high in hits and runs scored and took game one from the struggling Baltimore Orioles.

Friday night 40,043 fans packed Oracle Park hoping for the team to keep the good vibes going against the Baltimore Orioles behind starter Robbie Ray. Ray entered Friday night 10-6, 2.93era, and as one of the Giants more consistent starters. He suffered a bit of a scare before the game had even started. 

During his warm-up pitches, Ray stopped his wind-up and looked to the dugout to get some attention. It appeared that they were examining his throwing hand. “Yeah, I just had some skin rip off my finger but, uh, everything underneath was fine. It wasn’t raw or anything so it was a non-issue”, said the lefty, who managed to stay in the game and issued a lead-off walk (Jackson Holiday) who came around to score on a two-out double by Ryan Mountcastle. That was it for the Orioles in the first. 

Ray’s final line was 4.1ip, 6h, 6er, 3bb, and 5k. 

In the home half of the frame, the Giants showed the same fight they’ve shown the last week of play and had a big answer to the Orioles lone run. It took Orioles starter Dean Kramer five batters to record an out, and at that point the Giants had a 2-1 lead. The hits kept coming in the home first and the Giants put up four runs for a comfortable lead 4-1 lead. 

An entertaining start to the night for Giants fans at Oracle Park, and it was only the beginning of a rowdy Friday night. 

Ray set the Orioles down in order in the second allowing the offense to continue their momentum. Three straight singles (Lee, Adames, and Smith) brought home another run. Matt Chapman then drove in another on a sacrifice-fly to center field and the Giants lead was 6-1. 

The third inning brought an Orioles counter of three runs to cut the deficit to just two. That was the closest they’d get. 

In an absolutely miserable night for Baltimore where just about everything that could’ve gone wrong did, a combination of poor pitching and three errors contributed to the Giants season high 15 run, 18 hit night. 

The Orioles made it somewhat close in the fifth inning but Friday night was a game that the Giants offense ran away with and kept control of throughout. 

Dom Smith and Luis Matos both homered in the blowout win. Smith with his first career Splash Hit and 107th by a Giants player in the history of Oracle Park, describing it as “something that you dream of as a kid” in a postage interview. Matos’ homer was one of his four hits on the night (his first career four-hit game). 

The Giants continue to produce offensively as they homered in their 12th-straight game where they total 24 home runs over that span. The production has come from all parts of the lineup that has more depth with the addition of Luis Matos. Since being recalled on August 21, Matos is 13-for-30 (.433) with seven extra-base hits and nine runs scored. Manager Bob Melvin said, “There’s a lot to like about his bat. We’ve always liked it”, and it seems that their faith in Matos has paid off as he’s been a huge part of the team’s six-game win streak. 

The Giants flip the page to Saturday evening when they will play game two of this series with the opportunity to win their third-straight series. 

RHP Carson Seymour (0-1, 3.74) will get the nod against Orioles LHP Trevor Rogers (7-2, 1.40) Saturday at 4:15 at Oracle Park where the Giants will go for their seventh-straight win.