In his silencing performance against the Padres on Wednesday, Logan Webb not only pitched eight innings for the first time in his career, he became the first starter of 2022 to reach the eighth inning.
Webb’s 96th pitch, an 86.3 mph changeup, brought Trent Grisham to his knees with a half-hearted whiff. With one knee in the dirt, San Diego’s leadoff man watched the Giants’ 25-year-old ace hop off the mound with a scream and a fist pump.
Webb threw 96 pitches — seventh-most in a single game for the fourth-year starter — and nearly exceeded that. His eight innings of one-run, seven-strikeout ball were that good.
“It’s very tempting to even think about the ninth inning there,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said postgame. “But there’s some discipline, because obviously we’re still sort of building him up.”
Webb’s series-clinching win was just his second start of the season after an abbreviated spring. The Giants have been limiting their starters to a soft pitch count generally in the range of 80 to 90 pitches to ease into the year.
That strategy has become the norm league-wide; as Webb dominated in Oracle Park, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw threw seven perfect innings before manager Dave Roberts pulled him to reduce the risk of injury.
But Webb is nine years younger than the future first ballot Hall of Famer in Dodger Blue. Kapler said he thinks Webb should now be ready for a full workload. If he pitches like he did on Wednesday, that will look like a complete game.
“I came off after the eighth and (Bailey) was there,” Webb told reporters postgame. “I kind of talked to him in his ear and said ‘this will never happen again this year. I will not come out of this game.’”
What’s perhaps most impressive about Webb’s lights-out performance is that he spoke it into existence. Before the game, he lobbied pitching coach Andrew Bailey to increase his pitch limit.
“I told Bailes before, I’m like ‘Hey, if I’m kind of cruising, let me pitch the eighth,’” Webb said.
Cruising, he was. Opposite lefty Sean Manaea, who also pitched a gem, Webb struck out seven Padres without walking any. His changeup was particularly lively, generating seven of 15 swing-and-misses.
After a rocky first inning in which he allowed the only Padres run of the afternoon, Webb settled in by getting ahead hitters; in total, he threw 72 of his 96 pitches for strikes — “super efficient,” Kapler said. Webb worked quickly in the eighth inning, needing just 10 pitches to retire the side; Kapler thought it was his finest frame of the afternoon.
Kapler said the biggest difference between now and the beginning of last year is that as the game progresses, he can maintain command in all three of his pitches.
“I think the most notable factor there is the trust that we have in his strike-throwing ability,” Kapler said. “I think there was a time when he began to tire just a little bit, the first thing we started getting concerned about was — is he going to be able to deliver strikes? It wasn’t like, ‘was he still going to be nasty?’”
Webb is a totally different pitcher now than he was last spring. He’s now pitched 24 straight games without taking a loss. Someone who was once considered a question mark is now a known ace; through two games, Webb has allowed two earned runs on nine hits in 14 innings. He’s walked one while striking out 10.
And he’s far from alone in the rotation. Through six games, Giants starters have posted a 2.53 ERA and struck out a league-high 43 batters. San Francisco’s identity as a team led by its rotation is becoming a throwback to the Even Year teams.
“We’ve got a special group,” Webb said. And we know that. That’s the first thing (Alex) Cobb said to me when I walked in. He was like, ‘we’re going to pitch like this all year.’ And we all believe that. I’m just going to leave it at that.”