Webb struggles while battling knee discomfort: 'Still no excuse'

SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants fans who came to the park to see Logan Webb pitch Tuesday night had to absorb the jarring sight of Webb getting hammered for five runs over the span of seven batters in the fourth inning, then not returning to the mound for the fifth.

There was a tangible reason for his early exit, an injury that might prove to be a relief compared to intangible speculation that three straight 200-inning seasons, or ramping up too early in this year’s World Baseball Classic, or some other hard-to-pinpoint development might be behind Webb’s bad start to 2026.

In the wake of another rough outing in a 10-5 loss to the Padres, Webb was forced to admit he has been hampered by knee discomfort after manager Tony Vitello revealed it as the reason one of the game’s most durable pitchers was removed after four innings and 62 pitches in a two-run game.

Conceding the injury is one thing, but Webb unsurprisingly refused to blame it for his performance Tuesday night or in any other game.

“I’ve dealt with it for a little while, but it’s still no excuse,” he said.

Asked if he had to be talked into leaving the game, Webb said, “I probably shouldn’t have been in the game to begin with. It wasn’t very good today.”

He meant his pitching, not the knee.

Webb did not have a chance to argue on his own behalf after Dave Groeschner, the Giants’ vice president of medical and conditioning, suggested Webb should not continue. Vitello would not speculate on whether an IL stint is a possibility.

“I think it’s too soon,” he said. “I think for now discomfort is something we have to battle and we’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow. But it’s nothing to freak out about in my opinion.”

The Opening Day starter is now saddled with a 5.06 ERA. A number like that attached to a pitcher like Webb fuels the speculation that all of his innings from 2023 to 2025 are catching up to him. Vitello had a response to that, too.

“I personally don’t have a theory,” he said. “I go off of, ‘You’re only as good as your last outing,’ and the last outing was pretty damn good.”

Indeed, Webb was coming off two of his best games of the season, including a seven-inning, one-run performance in his previous game at Philadelphia. He also looked strong at the outset Tuesday, striking out Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado to start the game, then striking them out again in the third inning after allowing a Xander Bogaerts solo homer in the second.

In the fourth, the Padres needed just 21 pitches from Webb to send all nine men to the plate and score five runs. They particularly attacked his sinker, which was down slightly in velocity. He did allow some soft-contact hits, but there was nothing soft about doubles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Sung-Mun Song. Song’s first Major League hit drove in two.

The Padres continued their assault against the Giants’ middle relief, adding single runs in the fifth and sixth and two more in the eighth, one scoring on a Gregory Santos balk.

The Giants got a two-run homer from Casey Schmitt, who went deep for the second night in a row, and two RBIs by rookie catcher Jesus Rodriguez. Rodriguez singled home Willy Adames for his first big league hit and RBI, then electrified the crowd with a rare right-handed homer into the right-field stands in the seventh.