DENVER — The Giants hope that Robbie Ray’s signature grunts aren’t as noticeable in his next start.
That’s because the expectation is that the next mound the 32-year-old left-hander steps on will be located inside Dodger Stadium, where the guttural noises that accompany the majority of his pitches will be drowned out by 50,000 fans and the sport’s loudest soundsystem.
Making his 10th rehab appearance on his way back from Tommy John and flexor tendon surgeries Friday night, Ray threw 5⅓ scoreless innings for Triple-A Sacramento while striking out seven and issuing two walks. He surrendered just one hit while throwing 46 of his 78 pitches for strikes.
“The velo was there, he threw all his pitches and felt really good,” Melvin said. “That’s what we’re looking for.”
While Melvin wasn’t quite ready to set anything in stone, Ray would be lined up to start the third game of their series in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Jordan Hicks will start the first game Monday, followed by Blake Snell.
“Today, we’re talking about what-if,” Melvin said. “But as we sit here today, I think there’s a good chance that we see him in LA.”
— Snell, like Ray, will meet the team in Los Angeles. While Ray was making a rehab start, Snell got caught up in the chaos of the nationwide outage that disrupted air travel Thursday night into Friday morning. After multiple cancelations, Snell made it from Seattle to San Francisco, where he threw a bullpen Saturday.
— While the Giants will be getting some reinforcements soon in the form of Ray and Alex Cobb, RHP Keaton Winn (elbow) is further away. Out since June 22 with inflammation in his throwing elbow, Winn is “still feeling some effects,” Melvin said. “We haven’t pushed him to the point where we have a target for him to pitch in a game anywhere right now.”
