Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
It was not a start that Logan Webb experienced in spring training. There were struggles, there was contact, there were changeups that got knocked around the park.
And yet, it was not exactly a start that happened often last season, either. Webb was around the plate and ahead of hitters. He got a first-pitch strike on 17 of 25 batters. He gave up two squib hits in the first inning, yet bore down and allowed neither to score.
He lasted 5 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and three walks. The line looks familiar, Gabe Kapler acknowledged, from last season. But this was not the same pitcher who posted a 5.47 ERA last campaign, Kapler calling the outing more “mature.”
“I thought it was different in that he continued to attack the strike zone,” Kapler said after the 4-0 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Saturday. “He certainly got a good feel for that changeup and even made some adjustments with the changeup after we saw some of the hard contact.
“By introducing and getting a feel for a new pitch or introducing different pitch usages, we don’t guarantee that there’s not going to be hard contact. We can expect hitters to make adjustments. What’s important is that as he continues to develop this really unique weapon, he’s ultimately going to grow into being able to throw it in and out of the zone, but right now he did exactly what we asked him to do.”
The Giants asked him to hike up the use of his secondary pitches and especially his excellent change, which he threw about 31 percent of the time last season, and it worked throughout his 17, one-run innings in the spring. Then it worked in the first three frames against Seattle, his only blemish leaving the changeup too far up and straight down the middle to Ty France, who knocked a solo homer.
And then the fourth inning came, and Seattle appeared to be sitting on the pitch.
The first change Evan White saw he lined down the third-base line for a double. The second one Taylor Trammell saw (on an 0-2 count) he powered to right-center for a double. The first Dylan Moore saw (which was right down the middle) he swatted to the left-field wall. Three changeups to three batters for three straight doubles.
“I feel like most teams are going to be probably looking for that pitch,” the 24-year-old said. “I just have to execute better. Those three straight doubles — the Trammell one wasn’t too bad, but the other ones, I can’t leave them that far up. … It’s frustrating, but something I’ll work on.”
Especially while ahead in the count, the adjustment may be to bury the pitch. The Giants have wanted him to throw it with confidence in the zone, but he admitted he got a bit too “happy” with it. Of his 97 pitches, 35 were changeups. He induced six whiffs off the pitch and 12 in total, which is one shy of his career high.
After the fourth, he bounced back in the fifth and then got some strikeout help from Matt Wisler in the sixth. Webb was fine on a night when brilliant would not have been enough; the Giants’ offense was shut out.
If the Giants stay on schedule, Webb’s next start would come April 11 at home against the Rockies, a pretty favorable matchup. He was asked whether seeing his prized changeup get pounded like that shakes his confidence at all in the pitch.
“No,” he answered. “I’m going to keep throwing it. I also got some swing-and-misses on it as well, some strikes. I’m going to keep throwing it.”