Baseball’s two ground ball grandmasters pitched to their reputations.
Framber Valdez and Logan Webb, ranked first and second in ground ball rate since 2021, each spun gems on Wednesday in Minute Maid Park.
Valdez struck out more hitters, but Webb worked more efficiently, pitching into the eighth inning.
Webb (7.2 IP, 5H, 2ER, 5K, 2BB), aided by a late home run by Wilmer Flores and a strong day at the plate from catcher Joey Bart, led the Giants to a 4-2 win. San Francisco (13-17) got its most impressive series victory of the season.
It didn’t come easy. Through five innings, the Giants didn’t hit a ball in the air against Valdez and mustered just three base runners — none of whom reached scoring position. Valdez faced one more hitter than the minimum, thanks to two double plays.
In those five innings, Valdez fanned eight and induced seven groundouts while using just 68 pitches.
But then the Giants drew blood. Joey Bart led off the sixth with a single and Austin Slater drove him in with an opposite field liner. LaMonte Wade Jr. small-balled Bart into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt.
Slater’s arm has been a question mark, with a tender elbow delaying his return from the injured list. But he made a strong throw on a double play from center prior to that go-ahead single. His bat was never in question, and he’s hitting .500 on the year so far.
Mitch Haniger drove in another in the sixth with a single up the middle, spotting Webb a 2-0 lead and knocked Valdez out of the game.
That rally was massive for a team that hasn’t been able to produce offensively behind Webb. The 26-year-old entered Wednesday with the most losses in MLB. The Giants had averaged 2.3 runs in his six starts, including two shutouts. He’d taken the mound across Gerrit Cole, Julio Urías, Dylan Cease, and Miles Mikolas before the Valdez matchup.
The gauntlet of ace matchups hadn’t gone Webb’s way. Webb didn’t allow a single hit from the second through the seventh inning, instead allowing baserunners only via fielding errors by Mitch Haniger and Wade
Those errors forced Webb to use 46 pitches in the first two innings. But three straight nine-pitch 1-2-3 innings allowed Webb to make up some of the pitches he lost from the errors.
Also, with Valdez replaced, the Giants added another run off Houston’s bullpen, as Bart (2-for-3, run, RBI) smacked a double to the left field wall to score Michael Conforto in the top of the seventh. The former second overall pick’s strikeout rate is approaching league average and he’s hitting .302 on the season while grading out as an elite framer.
Webb got one matchup away from eight clean innings, but Alex Bregman beat him for a two-run shot that shrunk SF’s lead from three to one.
Still, Webb’s long start followed up Anthony DeSclafani’s eight-inning shutout a day prior. That combination was a boon to a fatigued — and physically ill — bullpen that got overtaxed in Mexico City.
Scott Alexander and Camilo Doval, with the help of a Flores solo home run in the ninth, closed out the win. With a healthy combination of home runs and small ball and deep starts from the rotation, the Giants bested the defending World Series champions in the three-game series.
