San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres

Robbie Ray has been traded four times over his professional career, the most recent of which brought him over to the Giants from the Mariners in January 2024. The expectation is he’ll be moved a fifth time in the coming days, as the 34-year-old left-hander is viewed as a prime rental candidate leading up to Monday’s Trade Deadline. In what will likely go down as his final start for the Giants, Ray showed contending teams what he could offer. He fired six innings of one-run ball to lead San Francisco to a 4-1 series-opening win over the Padres on Thursday night at Petco Park. “With the Trade Deadline coming up, I just tried to put everything out of my head as far as leading up to this start,” Ray said. “But it obviously comes up now that this could be my last start in a Giants uniform.” Ray allowed only four hits -- including a two-out RBI single to Xander Bogaerts in the second -- while walking one and striking out six, improving to 7-0 with a 1.65 ERA over his last 10 appearances (nine starts). The 13-year veteran finished the night strong, hitting 95.2 mph with his four-seam fastball while striking out Manny Machado and Ty France to leave a runner stranded at second base in the bottom of the sixth inning. “It was phenomenal,” manager Tony Vitello said. “He kind of showed you who he is there. You may get something done against him. They obviously get the one run. But he’s so good at managing innings and navigating his way through the lineup the entire game. He kind of emptied the tank there at the end and left it all on the table, which is normally his deal, too.”