Former American Leaguers Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman will take aim at an AL opponent when their team, the San Francisco Giants, takes on the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Friday night to open a three-game interleague series.

The Orioles and Giants have met just six times since 2019, with the unfamiliar visiting team walking away with a 2-1 series win on both occasions.

All told, the franchises have met just 24 times, which is 97 fewer than Devers has dueled the Orioles, 22 fewer than Adames, and 31 fewer than Chapman.

Of the Giants’ current 2-3-4 punch, Devers has had the best lifetime success against the Orioles. He has 22 homers and 83 RBIs vs. them, with a .294 batting average, which is 17 points higher than his career mark.

Chapman has eight homers with 27 RBIs with a .246 batting average in his career against the Orioles, while Adames has hit .281 with six homers and 16 RBIs.

The trio has solidified the Giants’ lineup during a five-game winning streak, with Adames recording a pair of two-homer games.

Devers had one of the best single-game performances in franchise history with two homers, four hits, five RBIs and four runs in Wednesday’s 12-3 win over the Chicago Cubs, and Chapman contributed a home run and two RBIs to each of the first two victories over the Cubs.

“These are the guys we signed,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said after Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Cubs.

Adames (2025) and Chapman (2024) were added as free agents over the past two seasons, while Devers was acquired at the July trade deadline from the Boston Red Sox.

“For a while now, we’ve expected big-time production,” Melvin said. “These are the guys we expect to be in those kings of spots for years to come.”

While no other current Giant has more than one career hit against Baltimore’s series-opening starter, right-hander Dean Kremer (9-9, 4.19 ERA), Adames, Devers and Chapman have combined for four homers, with Adames hitting .444 in nine at-bats and Devers .304 in 23, respectively.

Kremer will seek to regain the form that saw him shut out the Houston Astros on the road on three hits over seven innings two starts ago. It was the fourth time this season he held an opponent scoreless for a full seven innings.

Kremer, 29, pitched well in his only previous start in San Francisco, limiting the Giants to two runs in six innings in a 3-2 win in June 2023. Overall, he’s 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in two lifetime starts against San Francisco.

Kremer will oppose left-hander Robbie Ray (10-6, 2.93), another of San Francisco’s former American Leaguers. He’s made seven starts against Baltimore, going 2-3 with a 4.34 ERA.

The Orioles arrive in Northern California off a 1-7 homestand that concluded with a fourth consecutive loss to the Red Sox, 3-2, on Thursday.

The visit to San Francisco will be a rarity for Orioles young stars Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson. Holliday went 2-for-6 when Baltimore hosted the Giants for three games last season but has never played in San Francisco, while Henderson went 1-for-5 when the Orioles visited the Bay Area in 2023.

Neither has ever faced Ray.

– Field Level Media