He’s been overworked after an abbreviated spring. Hitters studied data from last year and now approach him in a smarter, more selectively aggressive way. His offspeed pitches, for whatever reason, just don’t have that same bite to them.
Theories have surfaced to explain Logan Webb’s curious start to 2022. Webb didn’t necessarily erase concerns on Friday in St. Louis, but the Giants’ ace battled through six effective innings. He allowed one run on two hits while putting four additional Cardinals on base via walk or hit-by-pitch.
It wasn’t easy for Webb, but the offense picked him up with three three quick runs and five more in the eighth, powering San Francisco (20-12) to its sixth straight win — a 8-2 victory over the Cardinals.
To be clear: Webb hasn’t been bad this season. Far from it. His first two outings were brilliant build-offs from a Cy Young-level second half of 2021. He was poised for yet another breakout. To be among the best starters in baseball.
Then a 3.2-inning disrupted by the strangeness of an unscheduled doubleheader in New York knocked him down a peg. He followed up his first loss since Cinco de Mayo of 2021 by grinding through the Nationals’ lineup, albeit with real blemishes.
Two more so-so starts — three runs on 11 hits to Washington and a grueling five innings against St. Louis — preceded Friday. He faced the same Cardinals lineup that he saw just six days prior and left him searching for answers.
“I don’t know,” Webb said after his May 7 start when asked about his recent performance. “I feel like I’m making decent pitches, I just feel like hitters are having a different approach than what I saw last year. Guys are kind of just taking what they can get. I don’t have the right words for that.”
It was “one of those days,” Webb said. Then Friday, the same batters that made him work in Oracle Park made him work again in Busch Stadium.
Command issues plagued Webb early. He walked leadoff man Tommy Edman, then a wild pitch allowed him to advance from second to third. He’d get ahead of counts, then miss badly outside or in front of the plate.
It took him 24 pitches to get through the first inning, and he allowed a run before surrendering a single hit. Webb walked two more in the second inning, driving his pitch count into the mid-40s. Then Webb’s first pitch of the third inning ran inside and hit ninth-hitter Andrew Knizner.
Whatever the causes of Webb’s recent slide — if that’s even what it’s been — are, the symptoms are clear. Hitters are either laying off or fouling off his putaway pitches.
He was nibbling more, but still not letting up much hard contact. The Cardinals’ first hit of the game came in the fifth inning off the end of Brendan Donvan’s bat for an infield single.
Webb walked three Cardinals, hit another and only generated five whiffs in six stressful innings. He grinded to hand the Giants’ bullpen a 3-1 lead in the seventh.
The Giants only added to it.
Brandon Crawford knocked in a run with a single off lefty T.J. McFarland. Evan Longoria’s first hit of the season scored two. Curt Casali stayed hot with a two-run home run. In three swings on four McFarland pitches, the Giants put up five runs in the eighth.
In their six consecutive wins, the Giants have scored 49 runs for an averaged of about eight per game. That eighth-inning scoring burst sealed Friday’s victory.
It also capped another one of those days for Webb — another one of those days that ends with a win.