SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — If it wasn’t already, Logan Webb’s first delivery, at 7:05 PT, made the winter’s 99-day lockout an afterthought. The long, unrelenting days of offers, counteroffers, deadlines, concessions and compromise were gone. Baseball was back.
Webb, who spent the winter itching to get back onto a diamond, sent the Giants into the 2022 season by starting their Cactus League opener across Cubs ace Marcus Stroman. And in San Francisco’s 7-3 loss, Webb looked every bit the dominant pitcher he was in the second half of last season.
Webb retired six of the seven Cubs hitters he faced in two innings, allowing just one baserunner — Clint Frazier — on a walk. He struck out five, with Rafael Ortega’s soft ground out representing the only contact yielded.
The shut-down performance was nothing new for Webb. His sinker-slider combination, which he said felt in “midseason form,” twisted, buckled and froze Cubs batters. His stuff was so nasty, at least one Cub fouled off a sinker at least eight inches inside the plate into his inner shin.
“It was just good to get back out there,” Webb told reporters after his start. “I wasn’t really thinking too much about mechanics or anything, I was just trying to go out there and throw strikes, kind of get back into the swing of things.”
Webb is still building up his conditioning, as starting pitchers do in mid-March, but said he felt he probably could’ve thrown a third inning Friday. He’ll need at least three or four more starts to be ready for Opening Day.
But Friday’s lights-out performance bodes well for the Giants, who hope Webb’s 7-0 record and 2.71 ERA in the second half of 2021 are the rule, not the exception.
Opposite Webb in Scottsdale Stadium stood Stroman, one of Chicago’s big offseason pickups. Stroman and Webb had a playful back-and-forth on Twitter during the lockout and each boast similar sinker-slider pitch arsenals.
“Us sinkerballers have to stick together,” Webb said.
Stroman, who matched Webb pitch-for-pitch with two perfect innings, called the Giants’ ace one of his three favorite pitchers in baseball.
“We’re kind of guys that don’t necessarily fit the mold of the pitcher today,” Stroman said after his start. “And to see his success last year is pretty incredible…He’s someone who always wants to learn. He’s someone who’s adapting, changing. I think he’s going to have an incredible career.”
Emptying the bench
- Webb wasn’t the only Giants regular in action Friday, as Mike Yastrzemski led off, infield mainstay Wilmer Flores batted right after him and heir apparent Joey Bart hit cleanup.
The trio combined to go 0-for-4, though Yastrzemski saw nine pitches his first time up and drew a walk in his second.
- Switch-hitting outfield prospect Bryce Johnson broke up Chicago’s no-hit bid in the top of the eighth inning with a leadoff double. The Giants selected Johnson in the sixth round of the 2017 draft out of Sam Houston State University. Johnson hit .286 with decent power for the River Cats last year.
Johnson’s double inspired U-S-A, U-S-A chants from a more-than-possibly inebriated Scottsdale Stadium crowd.
- Before Friday’s game, Giants manager Gabe Kapler noted how last year’s team wouldn’t have won 107 games without contributions from non-roster invitees and other unlikely contributors — namely Thairo Estrada and LaMonte Wade Jr.. The Giants are invested in giving their “second field” players a look and evaluating them.
Against the Cubs, hardly any players outside the 40-man roster really popped. First baseman David Villar let a single skip underneath his glove. Bryan Brickhouse allowed four runs. Righty Nick Avila fared only slightly better. Raynel Espinal was SF’s most effective reliever, but even he allowed hard contact that resulted in a ground-rule double.
One player to watch: Brett Auerbach. The 23-year-old has played every position except pitcher, shortstop and first base for the Giants. He drilled a ninth-inning RBI triple into the right-center gap.
- Giants officials, including Kapler, have raved about second baseman Jason Krizan. The 32-year-old second baseman has a chance to break camp with the Opening Day roster, given Tommy La Stella’s ongoing rehab for his Achilles surgery.
But Krizan’s first audition didn’t go smoothly. He dribbled out on the first pitch in his first at-bat. He short-hopped a routine throw to first in the fourth for an error. He struck out on a wild pitch in the dirt in the bottom of the fourth.
There’s plenty more time for Krizan to impress, and nobody should be judged off one game. Yet more performances like Friday will only make the veteran minor leaguer’s margin for error ever smaller. And the cries to sign Trevor Story will grow ever louder.