PHILADELPHIA -- Logan Webb is his own harshest critic, so it’s understandable that he wasn’t happy with the way he was pitching at the beginning of this year.
The Giants right-hander entered Thursday with a 2-3 record and a 4.86 ERA, the second-highest mark of his career through his first six starts of a season.
Despite the uneven results, Webb never felt like he was too far off from his All-Star form. He managed to regain it at Citizens Bank Park, though his effort ultimately went for naught.
Webb tossed seven innings of one-run ball, but Ryan Walker couldn’t hold a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, resulting in a 3-2 walk-off loss to the Phillies in Game 1 of Thursday’s split doubleheader.
The Giants led, 2-1, entering the bottom of the ninth, but the Phillies rallied after Adolis García singled and scored on Bryson Stott’s game-tying triple to the right-field corner. Walker retired Edmundo Sosa for the second out, but he couldn’t close the door after the speedy Justin Crawford beat out an infield single that brought home the winning run and sealed a series loss for the Giants (13-17).
It was the second blown save of the year for Walker, who has a 4.26 ERA over 13 appearances this year.
“The at-bats were competitive, and they did what they needed to do to win,” manager Tony Vitello said. “[Walker] could have done better, but he has done so in the past.”
Webb was originally scheduled to pitch on Wednesday, but his start got pushed back after the game was postponed and rescheduled for Thursday due to rain. Still, the late change wasn’t much of a disruption for Webb, who said he actually appreciated having an extra day to prepare for his outing.
“I think, honestly, in a weird way, it kind of helped,” Webb said. “I went home and was like, ‘Alright, I’ve got to be up early today.’ It was 9:35 a.m. back home at the start of our game. I just kind of went into it. I had done all my scouting stuff before, so it was just show up and do what you were supposed to do the night before, but in the morning now.”
Webb got some early run support, with Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman leading off the top of the first with back-to-back opposite-field doubles off Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. Luis Arraez put San Francisco on the board with an RBI groundout, and Casey Schmitt followed with a base hit to left field that scored Chapman and extended the Giants’ lead to 2-0.
Webb’s only mistake came in the bottom of the first, when he misplaced a 3-2 cutter that Kyle Schwarber drove out to right field for his 350th career home run.
“Not the way I wanted to start,” Webb said. “That’s not the pitch you throw to Kyle Schwarber right there. I threw it right down the middle. But I kind of locked in after that.”
Webb was tested after the Phillies put runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the fourth, but he struck out Stott swinging on three pitches and then got a huge assist from Chapman, who fielded Sosa’s 103.5 mph shot to the left side and made a perfect throw to catcher Patrick Bailey to nab García at home and prevent the tying run from scoring.
“It’s kind of expected at this point,” Webb said of Chapman. “It’s fun to watch him play every single day.”
The Giants kept the strong defense going in the seventh, when Bailey threw out Crawford on an attempted steal of second base to help Webb get through his final inning unscathed.
The 29-year-old veteran departed after striking out six, walking two and inducing a season-high 13 swinging strikes in his 92-pitch gem, though the Giants couldn’t reward him with a win after they were held to only five hits over the final eight innings.
“I was just trying to be better,” Webb said. “I haven’t felt far off all season. If you take away the first game of the season [against the Yankees], I feel like I’ve pitched not as bad as I may tell myself. But I know I need to be better, and I thought today was better. I’m working with the pitching coaches on trying to find new things or find stuff to make it better -- mechanically, pitch grips, just a bunch of different things. I just felt good today. I felt good the last couple days leading into today. I had high expectations of what I thought I was going to do, and I thought today was a lot better.”