Ray's gem sets up Giants' 4th walk-off of season

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even in retirement, Brandon Crawford has been keeping a close eye on the Giants, especially now that his hometown team is being run by his close friend and former teammate Buster Posey.

“I still have a lot of friends on the team, so I’ve definitely been watching them,” Crawford said. “It’s been fun to watch. There seems to be a new energy with Buster leading the way. I think you feel that in the clubhouse. It’s been fun to watch. I’d love to see them keep it rolling.”

Brandon Crawford Celebration Day might have been the main draw on Saturday afternoon, but the current Giants didn’t disappoint, either. Left-hander Robbie Ray struck out eight over seven innings of two-run ball, and Patrick Bailey delivered a pinch-hit, walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Giants to a dramatic 3-2 win over the Rangers at Oracle Park.

The come-from-behind victory was San Francisco’s fourth walk-off win of the year, which leads the Majors and is tied with the 1998 Giants for the most the organization has ever had in April in a single season.

“From ‘23 until now, I feel like we’re always in close games here,” Bailey said. “You just kind of get excited when those moments come up.”

The Giants (18-10) have now won each of their six games behind Ray, who lowered his ERA to 3.73 on the season after completing seven innings for the first time since returning from Tommy John surgery last August.

The 33-year-old left-hander allowed only a pair of sacrifice flies to Jake Burger and retired 14 of the final 15 batters he faced in his best start of the year. He finished his 97-pitch effort with 23 swinging strikes, the most by a Giants pitcher this season.

“It was a different level after the third,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Even the velocity went up considerably. I saw some 91 [mph] and 92s and then all of a sudden you saw a lot of [94s] and [95s]. The vert was good. Pitching at the top of the zone, doing all the stuff that he normally does when he’s pitching well. For whatever reason, after the third, it was a completely different guy.”

Ray felt he was working too slow at the beginning of the game, so he decided to pick up his tempo on the mound after permitting the Rangers to take a 2-0 lead in the third, which helped his fastball and slider tick up later in the game.

He said the entire dugout felt the momentum begin to shift once Willy Adames, who has taken over as the Giants’ new everyday shortstop after signing a seven-year, $182 million deal in December, erased the deficit with a game-tying, two-run single off Rangers starter Tyler Mahle in the fifth.

“Once we tied it up and got to 2-2, the crowd was more in it,” Ray said. “We felt great in the dugout. Everything felt like it was coming together for exactly what happened.”

The Rangers threatened in the top of the ninth after Marcus Semien and Jonah Heim strung together back-to-back singles off Ryan Walker, but the Giants’ closer managed to preserve the tie by inducing a popup and striking out Josh Smith and pinch-hitter Joc Pederson swinging. Walker has now put together back-to-back scoreless appearances, an encouraging sign after he gave up six runs over two-thirds of an inning in a pair of rough outings earlier this week.

“Unfortunately, with the week I’ve had, those last few outings, confidence has been an issue,” Walker said. “Today was a big focus on that. When the two hits happened, I just didn’t think about it. I was like, ‘We’re good, we can get three more outs after this. It doesn’t matter.’ I just stayed within myself and got through that.”

Walker’s clean inning ultimately led the way for the Giants to stage their final rally in the bottom of the ninth.

Heliot Ramos led off with a hard-hit single up the middle, and LaMonte Wade Jr. followed with a walk to bring up Christian Koss, who laid down a sacrifice bunt to put a pair of runners in scoring position with one out.

Melvin then decided to send up Bailey to pinch-hit for Sam Huff, which prompted Rangers manager Bruce Bochy to summon left-hander Jacob Latz to force the switch-hitting Bailey to bat from the right side. Bailey entered Saturday hitting only .159 with a .460 OPS over his first 24 games of the season, but he came through against Latz, knocking a first-pitch changeup to right field to score Ramos and collect his fourth career walk-off hit.

“I think that’s kind of been the exciting part of how we’ve started the year,” Bailey said. “We’re winning games, and yet, we don’t feel like we’re playing at our best. I think a lot of us are putting in the work to get where we want to be.

“I feel like the last week, my swings from both sides have felt better and better. I’m just trying to swing at the right pitches and go from there.”