Devers drills 2 HRs (on his bobblehead night!) as Webb caps off historic month

SAN FRANCISCO -- Rafael Devers lived up to the billing on his bobblehead night.

Devers homered twice to power the Giants’ 5-0 win over the Braves at Oracle Park on Saturday, capping an eventful week for the three-time All-Star slugger.

The veteran first baseman drew scrutiny when he tried to wave off a pinch-runner in the ninth inning of the Giants’ series finale at Miami on June 21, but he found himself back in the spotlight for more encouraging reasons on Saturday.

“To be honest with you, it’s impressive based off the storyline you give, but he’s the same guy,” manager Tony Vitello said. “I think, more or less, what he showed tonight is what he’s capable of doing. I think, to me, the only thing that’s been hard for him, and all of us, is we all just want to do a little bit better. I think part of that is knowing that we can be better as a group, each of us individually. Tonight, we really showed what we can do when we show up together as a team.”

Devers’ 22nd career multihomer game backed yet another dominant start from San Francisco ace Logan Webb, who allowed only one hit -- a second-inning double to former Giant Mauricio Dubón -- over seven scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 3.09 on the season.

Webb was feeling a bit under the weather, but he mostly cruised through his 92-pitch outing and retired 16 in a row after issuing a two-out walk to another ex-teammate, Mike Yastrzemski, in the top of the second.

“I think it made it even more impressive that he gutted through what he did and kind of got us a bonus inning there,” Vitello said. “It probably appeared on the stat sheet or based on how some of his recent games have gone that we went an inning short. It was actually probably a bonus inning that he gave us and put us in a really good position.”

Yastrzemski came close to nicking Webb when he sent a 396-foot drive out to right-center field in the fifth, but the ball ended up being caught at the wall by center fielder Drew Gilbert.

“It’s always weird when you face guys you know,” Webb said. “Yaz, he was close with that one. I gave him a little smirk after. I’m sure he’ll have something to say about it.”

Webb has been outstanding since returning from a right knee injury on May 29, logging a 0.85 ERA in six outings across that span. His 0.71 ERA in June is the best in the Majors and the lowest by a Giants pitcher in a single month (minimum five starts) since Noah Lowry had a 0.69 ERA in August 2005.

Devers, who declined to speak to the media on Saturday, put the Giants on the board in the bottom of the second when he smoked a 91.7 mph four-seam fastball from Atlanta right-hander Bryce Elder over the center-field fence for a 404-foot leadoff homer. Devers went deep again in his next at-bat in the third, golfing an 0-2 slider that sailed down the right-field line and clanged off the foul pole for a three-run shot.

“The foul pole might have robbed us of a splash hit, so we were upset in the dugout that it hit something,” Vitello said. “With two strikes, you’ve got to tame it down a little bit, but even in that situation, he still gets off an aggressive swing. He carried us offensively.”

Devers’ 14th home run of the year came on a pitch that was 1.45 feet above the ground; it marked his 25th career homer on a pitch 1.5 feet above the ground or lower, which is six more than any other player since pitch tracking began in 2008.

“That’s Rafi,” Webb said. “He’s an unbelievable hitter. It’s always in there. It’s fun to watch him. He works his butt off. He’s frustrated when it doesn’t go his way, and I love that as a teammate. You never want to be satisfied with not doing stuff. That’s the exact way I feel. Things always work themselves out. To see him have a game like that today is what he expects of himself.”

Ryan Walker and Sam Hentges combined to work two perfect innings to seal the Giants’ sixth shutout win of the season and end the speedy 122-minute affair, which was the club’s fastest game of the year.