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Logan Webb stars in front of 2012 team for shutout win over Pirates

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© D. Ross Cameron | 2022 Aug 13

There was talk about cockroaches on the Oracle Park infield before first pitch. Not in a termination sense, but a never-say-die, refuse-to-lose metaphor. 

For the 10-year anniversary, the Giants celebrated their 2012 World Series championship team — the one that won a record six postseason elimination games — with a pregame ceremony. 

“They wouldn’t die,” 2012 manager Bruce Bochy said. 

For these Giants (56-57), just about every game the rest of the way feels like an elimination game. Saturday night’s 2-0 win over the Pirates, led by eight shutout innings from Logan Webb, brings the Giants 6.5 games out of a playoff spot. 

Members of the 2012 club took in the game from a luxury box. Highlight packages from their special run flashed on the Oracle Park big screen, both during the pregame ceremony and between innings. One showed Matt Cain’s perfect game from that September. 

Logan Webb, who has drawn Cain comparisons, retired the first six Pirates he faced in 22 pitches. But then he allowed a leadoff double down the first-base line in the third to Rodolfo Castro. 

Webb stranded Castro by beating Kevin Newman to first base with a scoop-and-dive akin to a pylon extension. The former high school football star is an avid Raiders fan and has a Rich Gannon and Josh Jacobs football card taped to his locker name plate. 

The Rocklin native worked efficiently, needing only 58 pitches to get through the first five innings. He struck out seven and walked none, but also got help from his defense. 

Joc Pederson, who also doubled in the game’s first run, made a leaping catch at the left-field wall. Tommy La Stella turned two with Brandon Crawford quickly enough to nab the speedy Oneil Cruz. 

But the Cain comparison extended further. Like Cain, Webb didn’t enjoy much run support. LaMonte Wade Jr.’s solo home run in the third put San Francisco up 2-0, but the Giants got stuck there by going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine on base. 

Still, Webb shoved. Thirty-eight of his 99 total pitches packed Austin Wynns’ glove either as a called strike or whiff. Bryan Reynolds spiked his helmet down after striking out on a backdoor slider to end the top of the sixth. 

Then he danced out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth as his pitch count rang up near 100 by striking out Ben Gamel. 

With the Oracle Park crowd on its feet, Webb pumped his fist and walked off the mound. He passed the shutout baton to closer Camilo Doval for his 17th save. 

Webb, about as competitive as they come, might have a little cockroach in him. This isn’t 2012, but these Giants will need as much of that energy as possible.