'It's infectious': Ray leading charge with 6th straight quality start

WASHINGTON -- Robbie Ray hasn’t felt this good since his Cy Young-winning campaign for the Blue Jays in 2021. His results on the mound certainly reflect that.

Ray delivered his sixth consecutive quality start to improve to 7-0 and help the Giants take two of three from the Nationals with a 3-2 win in Sunday afternoon’s series finale at Nationals Park.

Ray -- a 12th-round Draft pick of the Nationals in 2010 -- allowed only one run on three hits while walking none and striking out seven over six innings, lowering his ERA to 2.56 over 11 starts, the sixth-best mark in the National League this year.

The Giants (31-22) are now 10-1 behind Ray, who tied the Yankees’ Max Fried and the D-backs’ Brandon Pfaadt for the most wins in the Majors after becoming the first San Francisco starter to start a season with a 7-0 record since Kevin Gausman in 2021.

“I’m feeling really good,” Ray said. “For me, it’s just going out one game at a time and giving my team a chance to win every time out. I think that’s my goal, just keeping us in the ballgame. But it definitely feels good to be able to do this consistently. I’m just looking to keep it rolling.”

Ray recorded six of his seven strikeouts on his four-seam fastball, which he threw 60% of the time against the Nationals. The only blemish against him came in the third, when Nasim Nuñez singled and came around to score on a wild pitch.

“This is a tough team,” Ray said. “A lot of power-hitting lefties. It’s kind of the first team that’s really thrown a lot of lefties at me. I think today the game plan going in was fastball-heavy and then just try to keep them off balance with all the other stuff. We kind of stuck with it. It ended up working out pretty well.”

The 33-year-old left-hander emptied the tank at the end of his outing, as he fired his hardest pitch of the game -- a 95.7 mph fastball -- while facing James Wood with a runner on second and two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Wood eventually went down swinging on another 95 mph heater from Ray, who departed after throwing 90 pitches.

“I think he just attacks,” catcher Sam Huff said. “Some guys are afraid to get in there and they want to spin. But he establishes the fastball and lets everyone know he’s going to throw it. He doesn’t care if you’re going to hit it or not. He’s going to keep throwing it.”

San Francisco’s lineup collected only five hits against Washington right-hander Michael Soroka, but it managed to push across a few runs via a third-inning solo shot from Huff and RBI groundouts from Willy Adames and Heliot Ramos. Huff’s homer, which kicked off a two-run rally in the third, hit off the top of the left-field wall and bounced into San Francisco’s bullpen, giving the Giants their lone long ball of the series.

“Good aim,” quipped Huff, who is batting .267 (8-for-30) with two home runs, one double and three RBIs in 11 games since April 20. “A homer is a homer. We take it.”

CJ Abrams and Wood collected a pair of doubles off closer Ryan Walker to pull the Nationals within one in the bottom of the ninth, but Walker managed to strike out Nathaniel Lowe and coax a flyout from Alex Call to end the game and pick up his 10th save of the year.

While the Giants’ offense has been spotty at times, they’ve consistently stayed in games thanks to the sustained excellence of their pitching staff, which is headlined by a pair of co-aces in Ray and Logan Webb (2.67 ERA) and a bullpen that ranks first in the Majors with a 2.61 ERA this season.

The Giants’ rotation has received an infusion of youth now that Hayden Birdsong and Kyle Harrison are getting the opportunity to start games, but the club will lean on Webb and Ray to continue to lead the way this season.

“I think the energy, the focus, the intent, it’s infectious,” Ray said. “I think we’re just building off each other. We’re trying to go out there and do what we’re supposed to do as starting pitchers, and that’s set the tone.”