Giants turn to Ryan Walker in bid for sweep of Mets

The San Francisco Giants were quite active ahead of their bid for a three-game sweep of the visiting New York Mets on Wednesday afternoon.

The Giants scratched left-hander Blake Snell from his scheduled start and placed the two-time Cy Young Award winner on the 15-day injured list with a left adductor strain.

Right-hander Landen Roupp was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento by San Francisco, which tabbed right-hander Ryan Walker (2-2, 3.46 ERA) to make his first start of the season on Wednesday.

Walker, 28, worked a scoreless inning of relief in the Giants’ 5-2 win over the Mets on Monday. He is 0-0 with a 9.00 ERA in two career encounters versus New York.

The Giants received brilliant starting pitching from Keaton Winn and Logan Webb in 5-2 and 5-1 victories the past two nights, allowing San Francisco to equal its longest winning streak of the season at two games.

“We’re playing better now,” Giants mananger Bob Melvin said. “We’re getting some big hits when we need to, we’re playing solid defense, we’re getting better pitching across the board.”

Wednesday starter Sean Manaea (1-1, 4.12) joined the Giants last season and has since moved on to the Mets. Snell stuck around one more year in San Diego, winning the 2023 National League Cy Young Award, before in essence taking his former teammate’s spot in the San Francisco rotation.

Snell was with the Padres in 2021 when he matched up with Manaea, then pitching for the Oakland Athletics, twice head-to-head as starters. They split the decisions, each with one dominant performance — Manaea with six scoreless innings of one-hit ball in a 10-4 win on July 28, Snell with five innings of one-run ball in an 8-1 win on Aug. 3.

Manaea will be facing the Giants for the first time since leaving as a free agent in January. He went 7-6 with a 4.44 ERA in 37 games, including 10 starts, for San Francisco last season.

The 32-year-old veteran has started 11 times previously against the Giants, going 3-3 with a 3.00 ERA.

The matchup also allows for a reunion with new Giants third baseman Matt Chapman, who played alongside Manaea in Oakland for five seasons (2017-21).

They have never dueled pitcher vs. hitter in their careers.

Manaea will be pitching the finale of New York’s six-game trip after getting the ball in the opener as well. He threw five innings of two-run ball on Friday and got a no-decision in the Mets’ 9-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

His former teammates, manager and fans will get a firsthand look at the new Manaea, who cut his trademark hair for the first time in four years during spring training.

“Pretty impulsive,” he said. “I thought it was time.”

–Field Level Media

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