Webb stellar in tossing shutout against A's
Maria Guardado
@mi_guardadoSAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants¡¯ offense still isn¡¯t firing on all cylinders, but with Logan Webb on the mound, it didn¡¯t have to be.
A masterful Webb spun his second career shutout and third complete game to carry the Giants to a 1-0 win over the A¡¯s in the final Bay Bridge Series game at Oracle Park.
Webb logged a 6.65 ERA over his first four July starts, the second-highest mark in any month in his six-year Major League career, but he returned to his All-Star form on Wednesday night, allowing only five hits while walking one and striking out six in the 106-pitch gem. The 27-year-old right-hander has now completed at least seven innings in 12 of his 23 starts, the most in the Majors, and owns a 3.49 ERA over an MLB-high 144 1/3 innings this year.
¡°It¡¯s a known thing, I¡¯ve been struggling a little bit,¡± Webb said. ¡°I wanted to go out there and get back to what I¡¯m good at. Today was a perfect example. [Catcher Patrick Bailey] called a great game and the defense was amazing behind me. It was all around a great game.¡±
Webb¡¯s pitch count stood at 96 after eight innings, but he didn¡¯t have to lobby to go back out for the ninth. In fact, there was no dugout conversation at all with manager Bob Melvin, who didn¡¯t have to think twice about letting his ace try to go the distance.
¡°I let him walk right by,¡± Melvin said. ¡°If he had any problems, he would have said something. [Pitching coach] Bryan [Price] went by and checked on him real quick, but he was going out. I was hoping he wanted to go back out.¡±
Webb jogged back out to the mound with a slim 1-0 lead and quickly retired the first two batters he faced, getting Brent Rooker to line out to third base and inducing a groundout from Shea Langeliers. Abraham Toro kept the A¡¯s alive with a two-out single to right field, but Webb coaxed another groundout from Seth Brown to end the game and complete his first shutout since July 9, 2023, against the Rockies.
Webb accomplished the feat in one hour and 55 minutes, marking the quickest Giants game since Game 1 of a doubleheader at Pittsburgh (one hour, 51 minutes) on Aug. 13, 2007.
¡°Logan¡¯s got great stuff,¡± A¡¯s manager Mark Kotsay said. ¡°He dominated the game. That¡¯s the first time in a while our offense has not scored. You tip your cap to a great pitching performance.¡±
Webb lacked a feel for his changeup for most of this month, but he got his trademark pitch back Wednesday, throwing the offering 54 times (51%) and using it to generate nine of his 12 swinging strikes.
¡°Not only was it getting ground balls, it was getting swing-and-misses,¡± Melvin said. ¡°His movement was back today, backdoor sinkers, changeups going straight down. He¡¯s been using his slider or sweeper a little bit more. But the changeup is his bread and butter, and when that¡¯s good, he leans on it.¡±
Webb has been most vulnerable in the first inning this season and fell into another early jam after giving up back-to-back, one-out singles to Miguel Andujar and JJ Bleday, but he managed to leave both runners stranded by striking out Rooker and Langeliers looking on a pair of sinkers.
¡°The approach was, ¡®Really you¡¯re going to do this again?¡¯¡± Webb said. ¡°That was kind of my approach to that. Those are two very good hitters, too. Just kind of extra locked in. I threw a bad changeup to Andujar, so I knew I had to throw some better ones after that. I just kind of put my head down and tried to get out of that inning as best as I could.¡±
Webb outdueled former Giants teammate Ross Stripling, who gave up one run over 5 2/3 innings in his first start in San Francisco since being traded to the A¡¯s in exchange for outfield prospect Jonah Cox in February.
Stripling entered Wednesday with a 6.02 ERA, but he held the Giants scoreless until the fifth, when Mike Yastrzemski singled, advanced to third on a base hit by Marco Luciano and scored the lone run of the game on Brett Wisely¡¯s sacrifice fly to center field.
The Giants (54-56) scored only three runs while splitting this two-game series with the A¡¯s, so they¡¯ll need to pick it up offensively to stay in the National League Wild Card race, but Wednesday showed that it won¡¯t take much to support their elite pitching down the stretch.
¡°With our starting pitching all healthy now, you know they¡¯re not going to give up a lot of runs,¡± Wisely said. ¡°If the bats can kind of get hot and get rolling, I feel like we¡¯ll kind of go on a tear.¡±