KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With the Giants officially eliminated from playoff contention, manager Bob Melvin said before their series opener Friday against the Royals that he could create some extra opportunities over the final week of the season for their young players.
His lineup still featured three veterans at the top, but no players with more than two years of service time occupied any of the the bottom six spots.
Perhaps the best audition for 2025 came from their starting pitcher, Mason Black, who turned in his strongest outing yet as a big leaguer in a 2-1 win. Black earned the first win of his career, while the Giants were an inning away from recording their 10th shutout of the season until Camilo Doval was called on to record the final three outs.
With Ryan Walker down, Doval was given his first save opportunity since being demoted from the closer’s role, loaded the bases and allowed the tying run to reach third before getting Tommy Pham to swing through two sliders to end the game.
While Doval was credited with his first save since August 7 — his 23rd of the season — it only came after his first eight pitches missed the strike zone, Tristan Beck began to warm in the bullpen, Bryan Price and J.P. Martinez made a mound visit and Tyler Fitzgerald botched a potential game-ending double play.
In the end, though, it resulted in a meaningful milestone for their 25-year-old rookie starting pitcher.
In Black’s seven previous big-league outings, he had never thrown a pitch in the sixth inning or later. And in each one, opponents found a pitch to tee up for a home run. But the 25-year-old right-hander got both monkeys off his back while tossing 5⅔ innings of scoreless ball.
The loss was the Royals’ fifth in a row, but the American League wild card hopefuls had been one of the league’s most fearsome offenses in their home ballpark, leading the AL with 4.92 runs per game at Kaufmann Stadium with the AL’s third-best home record (45-34). They had been shut out five times this season but just once at home.
Relying heavily on his two fastballs, Black limited Kansas City to four hits and a walk while striking out four on 84 pitches (54 strikes). His velocity was up across the board, maxing out at a career-high 95.3 mph twice, and used his heaters to put away all four of the batters he struck out.
In his thorniest situation of the evening, with runners on second and third and one out in the second inning after a pair of leadoff singles and a successful sacrifice bunt, Black got Maikel Garcia to line out to Mark Canha at first and Kyle Isbel to fly out to end the inning. He reared back to strike out both batters to deflate the threat of the walk he issued to lead off the fifth.
After Michael Massey sent a middle-middle fastball to the warning track for the second out of the sixth, Melvin determined he’d seen enough and handed the reins to his bullpen, which retired seven batters without issue before Doval entered.
The uptick in velocity — and effectiveness — has been a theme since Black returned from Triple-A Sacramento at the end of August.
In four starts since being called up August 31, Black has turned in the three longest outings of his young career while posting a 3.72 ERA, compared to the 8.79 figure he owned when he was demoted over Memorial Day weekend. He has racked up 18 strikeouts with only three walks in 19⅓ innings versus a 14:10 ratio in his first stint.
And, with Melvin deeming Robbie Ray a “long shot” to return this season, Black should get one more chance to prove himself. He was originally called up to fill Ray’s rotation spot when he landed on the IL with a strained hamstring and would be lined up to start the final game of their road trip in Arizona.
The Giants got on the board first for the fourth game in a row and had all the runs they would need by the time Black took the mound for the first time.
Mike Yastrzemski led off with a hit for the third time in those four games, though this time it only fell for a single.
After Yastrzemski made it to third, Heliot Ramos beat out a swinging bunt for an infield single that allowed him to scoot home.
Ramos would add a triple to the track in center field and a similarly struck double to give him the chance at the cycle when he came up for his last at-bat in the eighth inning but was erased by a diving catch from right fielder Adam Frazier — which could have been an inside-the-park number had it gotten past him.
In a sign Melvin wasn’t only managing for the future but also to win, he gave Marco Luciano his first start in four games but subbed in Donovan Walton on defense to start the seventh inning to protect their 2-0 lead.
Notable
3B Matt Chapman is expected to be activated from the paternity list and rejoin the team Saturday. His wife, Taylor, gave birth Thursday to their first child, Gia Alexendra Chapman, weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces.
Up next
RHP Landen Roupp (0-1, 3.02) gets the ball against RHP Brady Singer (9-11, 3.53) in the second game of the series. Take note, first pitch was moved up to 2:10 p.m. PT from the originally scheduled 4:10 p.m. PT because of inclement weather forecasted to be in the area.
