Giants rally to take Webb off a tough hook

April 8th, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO -- led the National League with 24 quality starts in 2023, but the Giants often struggled to provide consistent run support for their homegrown ace.

Just as Webb appeared to be in line for another tough-luck loss on Sunday afternoon, the Giants found a way to flip the script.

Matt Chapman delivered a two-out, go-ahead single in the bottom of the eighth inning to help the Giants rally for a 3-2 win over the Padres at Oracle Park and pick up their first series victory of the year.

Webb gave up two runs on 10 hits over seven innings, but he departed with the Giants trailing, 2-1.

San Francisco’s offense managed to pick him up by breaking through late against the Padres bullpen. Pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores got the rally started with a one-out single off Jhony Brito and was replaced by pinch-runner Tyler Fitzgerald, who went from first to third on Jorge Soler’s subsequent single.

The Padres nearly escaped the jam unscathed after Michael Conforto bounced a potential inning-ending double-play ball to the right side, but shortstop Ha-Seong Kim couldn’t handle first baseman Jake Cronenworth’s throw to second, allowing Fitzgerald to score the tying run.

That brought up Chapman, who lined an RBI single to the opposite field to put the Giants ahead for good.

“It was like, ‘Damn,’ at first, and then the ball came out and we were all screaming,” Webb said of Kim’s fateful error. “It was exciting. And then Chappy came up and got the big hit. You love to see that.”

Closer Camilo Doval worked around a two-out single to Jackson Merrill to post a scoreless ninth and pick up his first save of the season in front of 40,149 fans, the Giants’ third consecutive sellout crowd.

The Giants began their home slate with a dramatic 3-2 walk-off victory on Friday, but they were shut out on Saturday and then saw their scoreless streak stretch to 14 innings before Jung Hoo Lee reached on a throwing error by Kim and came around to score an unearned run on Chapman’s RBI fielder’s choice grounder in the bottom of the sixth.

The Giants entered Sunday slashing .188/.283/.302 as a team over their previous six games, but they also ranked second in the Majors in average exit velocity (90.5 mph), per Statcast, spurring optimism that their bats will begin to heat up soon.

“Our offense is going to come around,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “But if we can do the little things right and create this kind of identity and win these types of games, I think we’ll be tougher for it.”

The Giants’ inability to score early against Padres knuckleballer Matt Waldron was reminiscent of last season, when Webb received the lowest run support average (3.21) of any qualified starter in the Majors. The Giants went only 15-18 in Webb’s 33 starts in 2023, so they can ill-afford to keep squandering his strong efforts this season.

Webb gave up five runs over 3 2/3 innings in an uncharacteristically short start against the Dodgers last week. He said afterward that he didn’t throw enough changeups, which accounted for only 14 of his 96 pitches (14.6%) against Los Angeles.

The 27-year-old right-hander still didn’t feel entirely comfortable with his changeup in the first inning on Sunday -- he hung one to Cronenworth, who banged it off the top of the center-field wall for an RBI double -- but he got a better feel for it as the outing went on. He ended up throwing his changeup 56% of the time against the Padres, using the offspeed pitch to generate plenty of soft contact and help him work around traffic.

“I’m still not where I really want to be,” Webb said. “The first inning, the changeup was awful. I started throwing it more and started to figure it out a little bit better. Still some things I’ve got to clean up. But as long as the team wins, I’m all good.”