The San Francisco Giants won 5-0 against the Atlanta Braves tonight. And they did so primarily on the back of Logan Webb.
Tonight was Webb’s 13th consecutive start in which he allowed less than two runs. Tonight allowing only five hits, one walk and zero runs, striking out six. Webb’s start was Rob Manfred’s dream, with this absolute gem of an inning showcasing the speed at which he plowed through the Braves lineup tonight:
Webb hit Travis d’Arnaud on the first pitch of the fourth inning, which wasn’t ideal at the time, but he got Forever Giant Adam Duvall to ground into a 4-6-3 double play, before getting Joc Pederson to fly out. Three pitches.
This was the first three-pitch inning recorded by a Giants pitcher since Madison Bumgarner did it in August of 2010 against the Padres. And Webb would need only nine in the fifth inning. He made swift work of the Braves, with 98 pitches, 63 for strikes, in his seven innings of work. But he wasn’t just a threat on the mound.
The top of the first inning featured a home run from Tommy La Stella that was basically a do-over of last night’s at bat where Pederson robbed him of a home run at the wall, This time it sailed right over Pederson’s head. In the top of the third, Webb himself sensed that it might be a night of low run support and decided he would do it himself, hitting a double to left field. LaMonte Wade, Jr. advanced him to third on a single to right field before La Stella returned to do even more damage, knocking in Webb on a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Braves threatened in the bottom of the sixth, with Freddie Freeman hitting a bloop up the middle. Webb tried, but didn’t succeed on helping to make a play. It glanced off of his glove and slowed the ball enough to allow Freeman to reach safely. Austin Riley hit a ball to Wilmer Flores at third, but he overthrew to Brandon Crawford and the ball shot out to right field, allowing everyone to reach safely and Freeman to get to third.
After what should have been two outs turned into runners in scoring position, Webb got Dansby Swanson to pop up to La Stella, who held Freeman on third. And Webb got the chance to redeem his defense, fielding a ground ball up the middle from d’Arnaud to initiate a 1-4-3 double play to end the inning.
The top of the seventh inning saw the end of Braves’ starting pitcher Huascar Ynoa’s night, going a solid six innings, with three hits, two runs, three walks and three strikeouts. This brought in Richard Rodríguez, who had only allowed two home runs in 51 innings of work this season. But that was about to change quickly, as Mike Yastrzemski hit a home run to left center, over a leaping Pederson, on the first pitch he saw. This was Yastrzemski’s 21st of the season, tying his career high from 2019.
This allowed Logan Webb to stay in for the seventh inning as he came up to bat for himself. And why shouldn’t he? He’d scored a third of the runs for the Giants thus far. And you could tell he knew it, thinking he was a power hitter as he hit a ball hard to left field (that was easily caught).
The Giants added on in the top of the eighth, though. Chris Martin (not the singer) entered to pitch for the Braves. Buster Posey led off the inning with a single, which Wilmer Flores later followed up with a ground ball up the third base line that kicked off the glove of Riley and rolled away. They ruled it a hit for Flores. Posey moved to third on a fly out from Alex Dickerson, which ended a seven pitch battle, bring up Darin Ruf, who hit a line drive single to left field, scoring Posey. Yastrzemski quickly followed that with a double to score Flores and deal the final damage of the night for the Giants.
Tyler Rogers entered in the eighth, after Webb was pulled so Thairo Estrada could bat. It wasn’t smooth sailing for the Giants’ submariner, after he allowed back to back singles to Ozzie Albies and Jorge Soler to start the inning. It looked like Rogers, who started the inning strong, throwing mostly strikes, was starting to lose his location. But he got a clutch strikeout against Freddie Freeman, got Riley to lineout to third, where the runners were held, and got Swanson to ground out to second to end the inning.
The Giants went down in order in the ninth, but blessedly, so did the Braves. Jay Jackson entered and struck out the side, two swinging. This is the fourth time Jackson has struck out the side in his 17 appearances with the team.
It was an impressive night all around (with a few…creative liberties by the defense) and exactly what the Giants needed after their late inning loss on Friday night.
