The San Francisco Giants will have an opportunity to introduce their newest player to the home fans, but he will need no introduction when the club opens a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night.
Mark Canha will return to the Bay Area, where the Giants will look to build on successful trips to Cincinnati and Washington and play their fifth consecutive series against an opponent with a consistently poor record.
San Francisco acquired Canha, a former Oakland Athletics member, from Detroit at the trade deadline after he hit only .231 with seven home runs in 93 games in his first season for the Tigers. In return, Detroit received 21-year-old minor-league right-hander Erick Silva.
Canha played in four games including San Francisco’s 5-2 win, going 7 of 15 with four hits and two RBIs in a 9-5, 10-inning victory over the Nationals on Thursday.
Two rain delays and extra innings delayed the Giants’ return flight home, but San Francisco manager Bob Melvin promised he would still enjoy the long trip as the game ended in a thrilling finish, with each team scoring three times in the ninth and the visitors scoring four times in the tenth.
Canha made a crucial contribution to extending the lead by scoring two runs in the ninth inning.
“You talk about fight,” Melvin said. “Anytime you have that much of a lead and you give it up … to come back the next inning and do what we did, it shows a lot of fight.”
The Giants will begin a seven-game series at home on Friday with left-hander Robbie Ray (2-1, 4.40 ERA). The veteran will return to the scene of his worst three outings this season. He struck out four in 4 1/3 innings during a 5-2 loss to the Athletics on July 30 in San Francisco in his only appearance.
Ray played his first big-league season for the Tigers in 2014, going 1-4 with an 8.16 ERA. He was sent down again to the Arizona Diamondbacks at the end of that season.
The 32-year-old has faced the Tigers just twice, going 0-1 with an ERA of 4.15.
Facing similarly daunting challenges in the playoff race, Detroit will play against an opponent ranked above .500 for the sixth consecutive time and will be in for a different emotional loss. The Tigers squandered a two-run lead in the ninth inning in a 4-3 loss at Seattle on Thursday.
The Tigers effectively went the bullpen route through eight innings against the Mariners, and they’ll look to get nine innings from other relievers in the first game in San Francisco.
With a focus on reducing bullpen games, Tigers manager AJ Hinch spoke proudly about former top prospect Casey Mize, who is recovering from a left hamstring strain until the end of the month. Mize threw shutout ball over 2 1/3 innings in his first rehab start for Triple-A Toledo on Thursday.
“We want to get him ready as soon as possible,” Hinch said. “It’s really hard to plan for starting pitchers because getting them ready for five (innings) and 75 (pitches), or six and 85 (pitches), where they can make a normal start, it’s like a 3 1/2-week process.”
–Field Level Media
