TORONTO — It was just over a year ago, last June 23, that Keaton Winn made his final start at Single-A San Jose, returning from a two-year absence caused by a pandemic and major elbow surgery. When the Giants won their last World Series, Winn was merely a teenager in Ollie, Iowa: population 200.
On Thursday, the Giants reached the midpoint of their season, and Winn made his first major-league start in front of 27,761 fans, in North America’s most diverse metropolis.
Despite a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays, dropping their first series since the second weekend of June, the Giants (45-36) completed their first 81 games in better position than they were last season, when they sputtered into the halfway point at 41-41 with their eighth loss in nine games (and only worse to come). And with six strong innings of work from Winn, they may have found a starter who can help their prospects the rest of the way.
