Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Logan Webb could not share with reporters and the world a few key details after his dominant, two-way effort Sunday.
He wasn’t quite sure the last time he hit a triple — maybe sometime at Rocklin High School. And he declined to reveal his words upon reaching third after crushing the first three-bagger by a Giants pitcher since Tim Lincecum in 2013.
“It was something then, ‘Yeah!’” the Giants starter and new hitting star said after the 4-3 win over the Marlins on Sunday at Oracle Park.
Not sure why he was hesitant to reveal his “Heck, yeah!” exclamation, but perhaps he was content to let his arm and bat do the majority of his talking.
LOGAN WEBB TO TRIPLES ALLEY pic.twitter.com/Gk42511wp2
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 25, 2021
Webb pitched seven strong, scoreless innings and contributed his first career extra-base hit and RBI (two of them, actually), and it felt as if he should have come away with more. His sixth-inning drive traveled 390 feet to center but only went for an out.
Hey, Logan, did it feel like a home run off the bat?
“I don’t know what a home run feels like, so I couldn’t tell you,” the 23-year-old said, his postgame news conference nearly as entertaining as his on-field performance.
Webb did it all on an afternoon on which only his hitting could overshadow his pitching. But the pitching was pretty good, too.
He was a sensation of spring training, going 17 innings while allowing one run. He had entered Cactus League play as probably the team’s sixth starter, then pitched his way to the third game of the season. But the results stopped when the season started.
His prized changeup, whose usage he has been cranking up, was getting swatted because opposing hitters would sit on it. The movement was there, but oftentimes the placement would not be; when ahead in the count, he would leave it over the plate, and early in the counts he would not get enough chases out of the zone. He entered play with a 5.87 ERA in 15 1/3 innings, which included his briefly becoming a reliever until Johnny Cueto hurt his lat.
Working with shutouts-master Curt Casali on Sunday, he did not have his best command but he did employ his pitches differently. There were more two-seamers, which got a lot of soft contact (plus five whiffs and 11 called strikes). His sweeper may have been his best weapon, with the Marlins swinging at his seven times and missing four. His ERA is now down to 4.03.
Through 60 pitches, he had thrown more balls then strikes, and his final ratio was not great (58 strikes, 49 balls). And yet, he fought and got a lot of outs from behind in counts with stuff that kept the Marlins hitters guessing. Seven scoreless innings, and both pitcher and manager think there’s room for improvement.
“There were some misses to the arm side and the glove side that were substantial,” Gabe Kapler said Webb’s second start since Cueto went down, with at least one more expected. “I just think there’s an even better version of Logan, and today was a definite step in the right direction.”
Kapler said Webb has not yet approached his spring training level, which is encouraging for both the pitcher and a team that will have him in reserve if its five veteran starters are healthy.
“I think the thing that he is continually working on is just trying to eliminate a lot of those waste pitches; the yanks that are on the other side of the plate to righties,” was the report from his catcher, Curt Casali. “…But I thought, man, he played great today. He pitched great, he hit great. He definitely should be proud of what he did today and build on it.”
So that sets up the expectations for May 1 in San Diego as a shutout and a home run.
His triple, by the way, was 109 mph off the bat, the fifth hardest-hit ball of the Giants’ season. Maybe the next time a shallow-benched Giants outfit needs a pinch-hitter, it won’t be Anthony DeSclafani whom Kapler calls for.
“Now I know why hitters like hitting so much,” Webb said.