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Logan Webb leads SF Giants over Mets with eight-inning gem

Evan Webeck, The Mercury News on

Published in Baseball

SAN FRANCISCO — Word to the rest of baseball: Logan Webb is on a roll.

So, too, was his opponent Tuesday evening, Luis Severino, and in a battle to see which starter would break first, Webb outlasted the Mets right-hander to guide the way to a 5-1 win, only the third time all season the Giants have prevailed in consecutive games.

Webb walked off the mound for the final time to a standing ovation from the paid attendance of 25,453, saluting him for eight scoreless innings. He scattered six hits, walked one and more or less mowed through the Mets lineup before handing off a comfortable lead to Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval for the final three outs.

The Giants’ winning streak with their ace on the hill grew to four, with Webb going at least seven innings in all of them. Dating back to the one run he allowed in a win over the Rays last Saturday, Webb has reeled off 19 consecutive scoreless innings and has a 0.93 ERA since the Giants last lost one of his starts.

“It’s huge for any team to have a guy like that,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Today, we were going into the second game of the series against a really good team that’s playing well, to win that game, those are the kind of guys that step up for you. That’s what aces are made of.”

A telltale sign of a sinkerballer at his best is his ability to keep the ball on the ground, and besides a couple hits, the Mets didn’t put one of Webb’s pitches in the air until the fifth inning. All but four of the 24 outs recorded by Webb came via the strikeout or ground ball, including a 4-6-3 double play that erased Starling Marte after he singled to lead off the fourth.

 

“You saw it from the beginning: All the ground ball outs tell you what’s going on with him,” Melvin said. “Low pitch count, weak contact: That’s kind of him when he’s at his best. It’s never really about strikeouts with him. It’s about early count weak contact, and that’s what we saw basically the entire game.”

The league-leader in innings last season, Webb already has thrown more though six starts (38 ⅔) than any pitcher in the majors. Only one other pitcher, the Angels’ Tyler Anderson, has gone seven innings three times, something Webb has now done his past four starts.

He would have one more inning — and a complete game — on his pitching line Monday had he kept his pitch count through eight under 100. That was the agreement he made in the dugout with Melvin. He finished at 106, regrettably going for his fifth strikeout and exhausting 22 pitches in his final frame.

“I saw the pitch count; I wish I kept in under 100 there and went out for that last inning,” Webb said. “One of these days.”

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