How ace found his groove ... by calling his own pitches 

Something obviously clicked for Logan Webb in June.

Not only did Webb lead the Majors with a 0.71 ERA last month, he went at least seven innings in all five of his starts. Workhorse Webb re-emerged for the Giants in full force.

What did the trick? Well, that's the fun part. Webb started dominating when he started calling his own pitches.

While Webb was out hurt in May, the Giants traded away his longtime batterymate, and elite defensive catcher, Patrick Bailey. Webb hadn't thrown nearly as much to San Francisco's other catchers, so in his second start off the injured list -- and his first start of June -- Webb took over his own game-calling duties. And he promptly pitched himself into All-Star contention.

So what was Logan Webb, the pitch caller, actually doing? We might not be able to say exactly how much of Webb's success over the last month is directly due to his pitch calling skills, but there are real changes in how he's been attacking hitters.

Here are four key differences in Webb's approach since he first took over his pitch calling.

1) More changeups, fewer sinkers

This is one big obvious difference. For the first two months of the season, Webb's sinker was his most-used pitch. Over the last month, his changeup has been. The two have flip-flopped.

One easy explanation for that would be Webb's changeup is his best pitch (at least, his best strikeout pitch). Now that it is up to him, he is throwing his best pitch the most often.

No offense to Webb's sinker here -- it is a very, very good sinker. It drops seven inches more than the average sinker thrown by a big league righty. His changeup is just even nastier. It drops nine inches more than the average righty changeup.

Webb has done this before, over an entire season in fact. In 2023, the year he finished as the NL Cy Young runner-up, he threw his changeup more than any other pitch type. He can do it because his changeup is elite.

(There is also the fact that Webb faced a lot of left-handed hitters in June, and he is more likely to throw his changeup to lefties. But even factoring that in, Webb's changeup usage was higher than usual against lefties last month -- plus, it was higher against righties, too. And he threw fewer sinkers to both righties and lefties.)

2) More backdoor sinkers

Even with lower sinker usage overall, Webb found one key function for his sinker over the last month. He threw tons of backdoor sinkers to right-handed hitters.

Again, we want to stress that Webb's sinker is a very good sinker. Not only does it drop a lot, it also averages 16 inches of arm-side run. That movement profile means Webb can start his sinker off the plate away to a righty and run it back over the outside edge for a called strike.

He did that repeatedly in June. We'll define a "backdoor" sinker for Webb as one on the outer third of the plate or farther away vs. a right-handed hitter. Once Webb started calling his pitches, that became the clearly preferred location for his sinker.

Webb's "backdoor" sinker % vs. RHB

• April/May: 34%
• June: 71%

Almost half of those backdoor sinkers Webb decided to throw turned into called strikes. None went for hits.

3) More 4-seamers and cutters as the game goes on

It doesn't behoove a pitcher to be too predictable, especially the more times he faces the opposing lineup within a game.

One way Webb has adjusted over the last month to pitch deeper into games is to work in more of his typically lesser-used pitches, which helps balance out his pitch mix.

Webb's four-seamer and cutter are his fourth and fifth pitches. His sinker is by far his primary fastball, so the four-seamer takes a backseat to that, and the cutter, which he reintroduced to his arsenal in 2024 as a so-called "MVP pitch" to save for the best left-handed hitters in baseball, is still his least-used weapon overall.

But in June, Webb made an effort to use all of his pitches as he got to the second and third time through the batting order, which means more four-seamers and more cutters. That's the opposite of what he was doing in April and May.

Webb's 4-seamer and cutter usage, 2nd+ time through order

• April/May: 11% 4-seamers, 8% cutters … 19% of total pitches
• June: 17% 4-seamers, 14% cutters … 31% of total pitches

Webb still has his three big weapons, his changeup, sweeper and sinker, to get hitters out at any time in a game, but giving those hitters different looks later on is paying off.

4) More putaway pitches in putaway situations

Webb's four-seamer serves one other purpose besides something Webb can add as the game goes on. It's a two-strike putaway pitch.

The sinker is Webb's "workhorse" fastball, which carries the bulk of the load as he eats innings, but when he gets into a strikeout situation, Webb can fire the four-seamer at the top of the zone to get the K. It is a better fastball than the sinker for getting swings-and-misses, even if the sinker is a better fastball overall. And when he pairs the high four-seamers with changeups down, Webb can find a lot of strikeouts with those two pitches.

So let's see what he's been doing with them, the four-seamer and changeup, over the last month.

When he's in "putaway" situations -- we'll call those 0-2, 1-2 and 2-2 counts, where he can get a strikeout without the risk of a walk -- Webb has been hammering the four-seam/changeup combo. He's wiping out hitters with those two pitches, and relying less on the sneakiness of his sinker to catch them looking.

Webb's pitch selection in "putaway" counts

• April/May: 42% changeups, 22% 4-seamers … 19% sinkers
• June: 49% changeups, 25% 4-seamers … 8% sinkers

Webb's changeup and four-seamer are accounting for about three quarters of his "putaway" pitch selections, up from about two thirds before June.

His sinker and other pitches will get him into those counts. But when a whiff will do the most for him, Webb is attacking hitters with the pitches that are most likely to get them to whiff, and it's been the right call.