A bumpy evening for both starting pitchers wreaked havoc on last night’s bet — some of which wasn’t their fault. We’ll try again in the next game, this one in San Francisco.

The Giants hosted the Seattle Mariners for their home opener yesterday in what turned out to be a wild affair. The score was knotted 8-8 even before the seventh inning and ultimately spilled into extras, where the Bay Area residents would thwart a one-run deficit in the bottom of the 11th. They won it on a walk-off two-run knock from big free-agent acquisition Willy Adames.

While yesterday’s ballgame featured a whopping 19 runs, don’t expect anything close to that in the encore. There’s a pitching matchup on hand with the potential to showcase a duel.

Robbie Ray gets the ball for his second start of his second campaign with the Giants. Last year was Ray’s return from Tommy John surgery, doing so with San Francisco after his former club — tonight’s opponent — traded him in January 2024. The veteran southpaw went on to make seven starts, and while he produced an underwhelming 4.70 ERA, the other stats were positive enough to believe he could reclaim his old form.

In those seven games, Ray notched 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings (albeit with 4.4 walks per nine) and limited opposing batters to a .189 average. He also had a 3.72 expected ERA.

Spring training was very encouraging for the 2021 American League Cy Young Award winner as well, logging a 1.86 ERA, 0.62 WHIP, .157 batting average against and 10.7 K/9 in 19 1/3 innings.

Ray’s season debut came last Sunday in Cincinnati and turned out fairly well, even earning a victory. The only problem was that of his three hits allowed, two went for homers. However, that can always be a product of starting a game at hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park.