PHILADELPHIA — Giants pitching coach Andrew Bailey, effervescent as always, walked up to Logan Webb in the clubhouse Monday afternoon and proclaimed, “It’s a beautiful day out there.”
He was right. The air was warm — 89 degrees at first pitch — but not soupy. In a bandbox like Citizens Bank Park, that meant the ball should be flying. Webb was at his very best, limiting the Phillies to four hits and pitching into the ninth inning for the first time of his career, but three of those hits were solo home runs, nearly spoiling an otherwise beautiful pitching performance from San Francisco’s ace.
His catcher, Curt Casali, wouldn’t allow it. After Kyle Schwarber tied the game with his own home run off Webb in the ninth, preventing him from finishing the first complete game of his career, Casali jacked such a no-doubter to left field that Schwarber just turned and watched as it flew a dozen rows deep into the blue seats. At home plate, Casali watched it, too, striking a pose and dropping his bat before rounding the bases for the decisive runs in a 5-4 win.
A combined six home runs accounted for eight of the game’s nine runs, figures that bely the pitcher’s dual that took place for most of the contest.
The Giants needed every bit of Webb’s brilliance and just a little more as the only offense they were able to mount against his counterpart, Kyle Gibson, came on a two-run blast from Wilmer Flores in the sixth inning. Once into the Phillies bullpen, Evan Longoria sent a 1-0 fastball from Corey Knebel over the left-field wall in the top of the ninth that gave them a 3-2 lead and Webb a shot at finishing the first complete game of his career.
But Schwarber’s swing on a low slider ended those hopes, tying the game at 3 in the bottom of the ninth, and brought manager Gabe Kapler to the mound to take the ball from his starter.
The trio of home runs were the only blips on an otherwise exceptional outing from Webb, who has appeared to find himself again after spending the past month in the wilderness, wondering why he wasn’t able to miss bats.
Webb had command and bite on all three of his pitches, and used his every piece of his menagerie to record his season-best strikeout total, which also matched a career-high. Seven came via a changeup that dropped like a lead balloon, which he used to generate nine of the 15 swings and misses from Phillies hitters. After only regaining confidence in his full repertoire over his past couple starts, Webb displayed his best stuff of the season Monday.
Webb made 100 pitches, and just about all but three of them were excellent.
All three went over the wall. Castellanos put the first pitch of the second inning — a misplaced slider — in the left-field seats, and Hoskins turned on middle-middle sinker in the fourth.
His 100th, arguably, was well executed, too. Schwarber simply went and got it — and smoked it just over the glove of a leaping Stuart Fairchild at the center field wall. Webb had put Schwarber in an 0-1 hole, then gave him a slider at his knees.
Besides that, Webb was masterful. A single from Schwarber was the only other hit he allowed, while not issuing a walk. And, even while striking out 10, he was efficient. Webb started the eighth with his pitch count at 90 and needed only eight pitches to make it through inning, convincing Kapler to send him back out for the ninth.
The nine-inning complete game would have been the first of Webb’s career.
The three home runs allowed by Webb marked only the second time in his career that he has allowed multiple home runs in a game. The other time came in his second major-league start — both came from Mark Canha in an August 2019 win against Oakland — and then Webb went 52 starts without allowing more than one, the longest streak by a Giants pitcher since Tim Lincecum from 2008 to 2010 (67 starts).
