Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
It was a good day for the Giants’ present. It may have been a better day for the Giants’ future.
The Logan Webb era started before the Joey Bart era, yet maybe both prospects will be best when paired together.
Webb was at his best as a major leaguer with the top prospect catching him for the first time, the two looking like veterans in getting better as the game grew longer in a 6-2 victory over the Diamondbacks at Oracle Park on a smoky Friday night.
The Giants’ fourth straight win, after losing five straight, improves them to 12-16 10 days before the trade deadline. They are trying to make Farhan Zaidi’s and Scott Harris’ decision difficult and doing a nice job.
Webb was at 47 pitches through four innings, unable to finish off many hitters and counts dragging for a righty who hadn’t gone beyond five frames this year. Yet he and Bart adjusted and induced more contact earlier in counts, as well as getting an assist from a smooth Wilmer Flores-Brandon Crawford-Wilmer Flores double play to end the sixth. He faced the minimum nine batters in the fifth, sixth and seventh, finishing after a career-high 102 pitches.
And a career-high seven innings. A career-high eight strikeouts. The 23-year-old allowed just two runs on five hits without a walk, the most promising young piece of the rotation acting like it with Bart on the other end of the battery.
Webb’s only blip was a troublesome fourth, when Arizona quickly strung three hits together, the last an Eduardo Escobar RBI single that made it 2-2, but the Giants would go ahead to stay in the fifth.
Tony Watson and Tyler Rogers finished the job without drama — Rogers retiring Stephen Vogt to close the game — and Giants bats that were powerful, if not particularly clutch, did more than enough.
Evan Longoria was the offensive star, rocketing his 300th career home run, to left in the third, to give the Giants their first two runs. He became the 150th major leaguer to hit a milestone he had been sitting on for a week.
Longoria is among the many veteran Giants — basically each besides Hunter Pence — who has begun to show more life at the plate, his 2-for-4 night upping his slashline to .263/.306/.461.
Wilmer Flores hit his own two-run shot in the fifth, the third straight game Flores has gone yard, a career best. He leads the team with seven dingers and continues to look like a serious threat with a bat in his hands.
As much positive as there was all around, the brightest glimpse toward the future may have come in the seventh, when Arizona, with righty Javy Guerra on the mound, intentionally walked lefty Alex Dickerson to get to Bart with the bases loaded. The catcher fell behind 1-2, but worked a 10-pitch at-bat and fouled off five pitches before very much earning a walk and his first career RBI. For good measure, he already had blasted a double off the right-field bricks, finishing 1-for-3.
The Giants added another in the inning, which went between than the first two tries with the bases loaded, not scoring in the first or second and finishing 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
The biggest concern came in the first, when Austin Slater, who had walked and advanced to second, did a lot of stopping and going in getting to third on a long Mike Yastrzemski single that left fielder David Peralta got to but couldn’t hold on. Trainer Dave Groeschner then talked to the emerging star, who was removed from the game. The Giants did not provide an immediate update on Slater.
It was a poor omen for a night that would turn quickly.