Chris Mezzavilla
When Logan Webb got the word that his purgatory was finally over, that he would not be making another rehab appearance and instead would be back in the majors, he outlined a few goals.
He is not built up, so he was told he could go about three innings, about 45 pitches. He and Curt Casali conferred.
“Let’s strike nine guys out,” Webb relayed after the Giants’ 5-3 win over the Nationals at Oracle Park on Friday.
He came up five shy, but it was the only area he was lacking.
Webb was excellent in his brief appearance, allowing just a hit — a harmless Starlin Castro single — without walking a batter in his three innings and 45 pitches, while giving the Giants something to think about a few hours after Farhan Zaidi said the club’s biggest concern of his for the second half is starting pitching depth.
Webb had not pitched since a shoulder strain sent him to the injured list for a second time this season following a May 29 start. Friday was just his fourth outing since May 11, but there is not a dud in the mix: He has gone 20 innings and allowed four runs (two earned).
He has not looked like the budding star he often resembled in spring training, when he leaned heavily upon a changeup that got more hittable the more he threw it. Instead, he has backed off the offering and featured his two-seamer more, which was as good as it has been all season against the Nationals.
In the first inning, he used a four-seamer to strike out Alcides Escobar before an entertaining face-off with Juan Soto. Webb gets revved up when he faces the game’s best, and the Childish Bambino qualifies. In a 2-2 count, Soto fought off a good slider before Webb went to the two-seamer.
“That’s probably the best sinker I’ve ever thrown,” Webb said of a pitch that started in the middle of the plate then strayed away from Soto’s bat, crossing far outside the strike zone and far away from his whiff for strike three.
Logan Webb, Sick 94mph Two Seamer. ? pic.twitter.com/H7mW5gQAZp
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 10, 2021
Webb wanted to face the Nationals, but the feeling was not mutual. All-Star Trea Turner reached on an error, and then popped out against a Webb slider.
He next stepped up against Jarlin Garcia.
“Why’d you guys take that guy out?” Turner said to Casali, according to the Giants catcher.
That guy now quietly has a 3.63 ERA with an arm that has logged just 52 innings and could become a major factor for a team with World Series hopes and is absent a fifth starter at the moment.
“It’s a little premature to kind of bank on the three-inning outing kind of turning into six- and seven-inning outings,” Gabe Kapler said. “But when Logan is at his best and when he’s attacking the strike zone and utilizing all his pitches effectively, he’s a great weapon for us.”
Webb doesn’t know the next step. Maybe he’ll continue to get stretched out and be up to six innings after the All-Star break. Maybe he’ll become a multi-inning option out of the bullpen.
He doesn’t mind at the moment.
“I’m just happy to be back,” Webb said. “Tonight was a lot of fun.”
The crowd was not the only group of people at Oracle Park buzzing about Brandon Crawford, who a) started one of the best double plays you’ll see and b) threw out a runner at the plate and c) showed off his cannon to complete another important double play.
"If I made that play I'd be like f— yeah!!!" ???
–Logan Webb on Brandon Crawford's web gem pic.twitter.com/mvWjmPmgh9
— KNBR (@KNBR) July 10, 2021
“Tonight is probably the first time I can say confidently that defense won the game for us,” Kapler said.
“I just told him I thought that was probably one of the best defensive games I’ve ever seen,” Casali said. “That double play, that’s as good a web gem as I’ve seen, to be able to flip it from your glove on the forehand side is significantly harder than doing it from a backhand position. For Donnie [Solano] to turn it in that situation was absolutely huge.”
Webb was the most entertaining, though.
“The crazy thing is every time he makes those plays, you think he’d get excited about it, right? But he gets up and it’s just like, ‘Two!’” Webb said, holding up two fingers like Crawford does to signal how many outs there are. “If I made that play, I’d be like, ‘F–k yeah!’”