The San Francisco Giants will have an opportunity to trot out their newest player in front of the home fans, but he won’t need any introduction to the visiting Detroit Tigers on Friday night when the clubs open a three-game series.
Mark Canha will return to the Bay Area as the Giants bid to build on a successful trip to Cincinnati and Washington with a fifth consecutive series against an opponent with a losing record.
San Francisco acquired Canha, a former member of the Oakland Athletics, at the trade deadline from Detroit after he’d hit just .231 with seven home runs in 93 games in his first season for the Tigers. Detroit received 21-year-old minor-league right-hander Eric Silva in exchange.
Canha played in four of the games on San Francisco’s 5-2 trip, capping a 7-for-15 run with four hits and two RBIs in Thursday’s 9-5, 10-inning triumph over the Nationals.
Two rain delays and extra innings stalled the Giants’ flight home, but San Francisco manager Bob Melvin promised he’d enjoy the long trek nonetheless after a crazy finish that saw each team score three times in the ninth before the visitors put up four in the 10th.
Canha contributed a two-run, go-ahead double to the uprising in the ninth inning.
“You talk about some fight,” Melvin said. “Whenever you have a lead like that and you give it up … to come back the next inning and do what we did, that shows a lot of fight.”
The Giants will begin a stretch of seven straight games at home with left-hander Robbie Ray (2-1, 4.40 ERA) on the hill Friday. The veteran will return to the site of his worst of three outings this season. He was roughed up for four runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 5-2 loss to the Athletics on July 30 in his only San Francisco appearance of the year.
Ray pitched his first big-league season in 2014 for the Tigers, going 1-4 with an 8.16 ERA. He was dealt again at that season’s end, going to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The 32-year-old has faced the Tigers just twice, going 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA.
Facing a similar uphill climb in its playoff chase, Detroit will go against a sixth consecutive above-.500 opponent and will be at a distinct emotional disadvantage. 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 for eight innings against the Mariners and will try to get nine from another assortment of relievers in the opener in San Francisco.
With an eye on fewer bullpen games, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch proudly spoke of former top prospect Casey Mize returning from a strained left hamstring by the end of the month. Mize threw 2 1/3 innings of shutout ball in his first rehab start Thursday for Triple-A Toledo.
“We want to get him ready as fast as possible,” Hinch said. “Starting pitchers are really hard to plan out because to build them up to have five (innings) and 75 (pitches), or six and 85, where they can have a normal start, that’s like a 3 1/2-week process.”
–Field Level Media