TORONTO — Brandon Belt said before this series began that he hoped to homer off Logan Webb, joking that “I just want embarrass his whole family.” The former Giants first baseman sure gave it his best shot, hammering fly balls a combined 739 feet in his first two trips to the plate, but Toronto didn’t need to leave the ballpark to punch Webb harder than any team this season.
The Blue Jays brought nine men to the plate and tagged Webb for five runs in the first inning, putting the Giants into a rare hole that proved too deep to climb out of. Dropping the middle game of their series here, 6-1, the Giants lost for the first time away from Oracle Park since Memorial Day weekend, snapping a San Francisco-era record of 10 straight road wins.
A night after the Giants toppled the Blue Jays’ top starter, Kevin Gausman, with a bullpen game, Toronto gave San Francisco a dose of the same medicine. A quartet of Blue Jays relievers combined to limit the Giants to one run on six hits — three from LaMonte Wade Jr. — or the number Toronto totaled in the first inning alone.
Austin Slater, who entered the game for Michael Conforto (left hamstring tightness) in the top of the second, provided the Giants’ lone run with a 402-foot solo shot over the Tim Horton’s sign in right-center field. The Giants advanced only two other runners into scoring position, Wade on a wild pitch after his leadoff single in the first and Patrick Bailey on a well-struck seventh-inning double.
The five earned runs by the Blue Jays in the first inning were the most ever allowed by Webb in a single inning and marked a season-worst for single game.
Belt stepped in the box in the bottom of the first with one run already on the board and a man on first base. It initially appeared that he may have made good on his intentions, driving a ball to deep left-center field, but had to settle for an RBI double as the ball fell a few feet short of the wall. He came up just short again in his second at-bat, sending Luis Matos to the track in center field to record the deepest out of the game.
As Belt returned to the dugout, he appeared to share a few words with his former teammate on the mound.
While the Blue Jays tagged Webb for six hits in the first inning — four doubles — Belt’s 98.8 mph two-bagger was their hardest-hit ball of the inning until a 109-mph line drive single from Danny Jansen drove home the final run. George Springer’s double to lead off the inning and Daulton Varsho’s that drove in Belt both had hit probabilities of 16% or less, according to Statcast. It was only the fourth time in the Statcast era (since 2015) that a pitcher has allowed four doubles in an inning and none registered an exit velocity of 100 mph or more.
After the big first inning, Webb settled in to retire 11 of the final 13 batters he faced but gave way to Ross Stripling to start the sixth inning. Stripling, making his first appearance since May 17 (low back strain), took down the final three innings while allowing one run on three hits, striking out three.
The first inning cost the Giants more than the game. Conforto was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the top of the second after giving chase to multiple balls in right field, including a foul pop from Matt Chapman that sent Conforto racing into foul territory and ultimately into the waist-high wall while recording the second out of the inning.
