PHOENIX — The pants were tight and the grunts were loud.
“It looked like normal Robbie Ray to me,” said Keaton Winn, offering a review of a major milestone in his rehab partner’s journey back from multiple elbow surgeries.
On the backfields of the Peoria Sports Complex, the 31-year-old former Cy Young winner struck out the side in one inning of work against the Mariners’ rookie-level affiliate. It was his first time appearing in a game since undergoing Tommy John and flexor tendon surgeries last spring.
“It’s kind of the start of a process for him,” manager Bob Melvin said of Ray, who still has a number of checkpoints to hit before he is expected to debut sometime after the All-Star break. “Robbie threw really good. I think he was up to like 96-97 (mph).”
With nobody but the participants and maybe a dozen observers, it was unmistakable who the left-hander on the mound was, even from Winn’s point of view in the bullpen. When it comes to Ray, even his rehab pitches are maximum effort.
“No one’s making noise,” Winn said, laughing. “It’s just him screaming.”
Ray allowed one hit, a single to Seattle’s highly touted 18-year-old Felnin Celestin, at which point he amped up the intensity an additional degree.
“I could hear the grunts (initially), but I couldn’t really hear them,” Winn said. “Once the guy got on, he just started screaming on the mound. While he was pitching, just grunts. And then he punched out the side. I know he feels good. He looked strong. I’d hope he’s strong by the way he looked. I think everything’s going well for him.”
Rehabbing at the club’s Papago Park facility, Ray took advantage of the MLB team’s proximity during its road series against the Diamondbacks to swing by the visitors’ clubhouse Monday.
“It was good to see Robbie back in here; he’s hungry, too,” left-hander Kyle Harrison said. “He wants to come back. He’s throwing well. We’ll be excited to have him back, and we definitely could use him.”
It’s no secret the Giants are hurting for starting pitching, with Winn, Blake Snell and Alex Cobb providing Ray company on the injured list and with two of the other three members of the rotation — Harrison and Jordan Hicks — all but guaranteed to surpass their previous career-highs in innings not long into the second half.
Relieving Ray in Peoria on Tuesday, Winn threw 62 pitches and struck out six over 3⅔ innings, and Melvin said, “I expect him to take one of these turns the next time through the rotation.” If he remains on regular rest, that would line him up to start the final game of the road trip Sunday in Texas.
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The Giants got the results of Snell’s MRI, which revealed a mild groin strain, but he will be re-evaluated Thursday and doesn’t have a timeline to return.
Where Ray and Cobb fit into the picture when they are ready to return remains to be seen. Both are veteran pitchers proven capable of handling a hefty workload, but each is also on the wrong side of 30 and returning from serious surgeries and lengthy rehab processes.
“We’re not going to ask them to carry a typical healthy starter’s workload in the second half of the year if they’re pitching in our rotation,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “But we’re also not going to deny them that if they’re throwing the ball well.
“… I don’t think we’ll build them up to be (only) five-inning starters. I think the idea would be to build them up to a pitch threshold. But I don’t want to say what we’re not going to allow them to do. They’re veteran guys. Between the medical staff and the individual pitchers and the coaching staff, we just have to make sure we’re doing things responsibly, knowing that we can’t guarantee health.”
