The Giants have won 15 of their last 16 games against the Rockies. In National League wild card race that could be decided by a game or two, they have five more matchups against their divisional little brother.
To beat Colorado Saturday, they scored nine runs on 13 hits for the second straight night. Unlike in the opener, in which they needed to mount two substantial comebacks, the Giants led comfortably from start to finish.
Leadoff man Mike Yastrzesmki went 4-for-5 and Thairo Estrada blasted the game’s only home run. Logan Webb, Major League Baseball’s innings leader, gave the Giants six unimpeachable innings while enjoying a rare cushion from his offense.
“It was great,” manager Gabe Kapler said postgame. “Kind of wish we could’ve spread (the runs) over a couple of past Logan starts.”
The Giants (72-70) will have to keep beating up on the Rockies, a club ripe for such treatment. With one more game against Colorado this weekend and four more at Coors next week, they’ll need more results like their 9-1 victory.
The last-place Rockies don’t do much of anything well, and haven’t had a clear direction for years. Since the start of 2021, the Giants are 36-10 with a +117 run differential against the cellar-dwelling Rockies.
“Every game’s important,” Webb said postgame. “We come in every day trying to win that day. You do that, you have a decent chance of doing a good job.”
Chase Anderson, Colorado’s starting pitcher, hadn’t won a game since Sept. 21, 2022 entering Oracle Park. That’s a span of 18 games without a win for the 10-year journeyman.
Colorado walked the most important two runs in the opener — a game in which they blew two substantial leads. Their roster rivals Oakland and Kansas City for least talented in Major League Baseball.
On Saturday, a routine pop fly popped out of Nolan Jones’ glove. Anderson gave the Giants a run on a wild pitch. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar kicked a backhand (ruled a hit for Luis Matos).
Colorado’s ineptitude helped the Giants scratch runs across for Webb, who had been putting Matt Cain to shame in the run support department.
Webb entered Saturday with a run support average of 3.03 per nine innings — the lowest in MLB. In 13 of his 29 starts, the Giants scored between zero and two runs.
But the Giants scored two runs for Webb right away, as Mike Yastrzesmki and Thairo Estrada tagged Anderson for a double and home run as the first two Giants to pick up a bat. Estrada’s homer came in his first plate appearance after he missed Friday night’s contest with conjunctivitis.
San Francisco poured on four more runs in the fourth as Anderson unraveled. J.D. Davis, LaMonte Wade Jr., Mike Yastrzemski and Luis Matos each supplied base hits in the rally.
The Rockies are going to afford the Giants’ fledgling offense every chance to snap back to mediocrity.
Webb, meanwhile, cruised through Colorado’s undaunting lineup. By using a balanced three-pitch mix, he generated seven whiffs in the first three innings. The Rockies sprinkled just three hits — all singles — off Webb in his six scoreless frames.
Webb might’ve came back out for the seventh at 93 pitches if the Giants hadn’t padded their lead with three more runs in the eighth.
Getting Webb some extra rest, though, was a major victory for the Giants. He and Alex Cobb have shouldered major loads — although responsibilities not unlike traditional aces of a staff — as the only traditional starting pitchers in the Giants rotation for most of the season. Webb now has four starts left and will likely be the first pitcher to cross the 200-inning threshold.
Despite a stellar, Cy Young-caliber season, Webb said “I haven’t done my job the best way for a lot of the season.” The refrain is consistent for Webb, the extreme competitor who is particularly hard on himself.
“He holds himself to the standard of the team,” Yastrzemski said of Webb. “That’s one of the best things about him as a teammate, is that it’s all about the team. It’s all about the win. He could pitch a one-hit, one-run game for nine innings and we don’t score a run, and he’ll think he did poorly. That’s what makes him special, that’s what makes him a good teammate. And that’s what makes us want to play as hard as we can behind him because we know he’s going to do the same for us.”
Yastrzemski cracked an RBI double off the right-field bricks at 109.7 mph — one of his hardest hit balls of the season — as part of the Giants’ three-run eighth inning. Joc Pederson and Davis also added key knocks to give the Giants a 9-0 lead and nine runs for the second consecutive night.
Only against the Rockies could SF break out offensively quite like that. After a grueling stretch against the Rays, Rangers, Braves, Phillies, Padres, Reds and Cubs, coming home to the Rockies is like swinging a bat after using a weighted donut.
The Giants will need more than just five more of these performances against Colorado. To reach the postseason, they’ll need to use five more matchups with the Rockies as a springboard.
