Logan Webb turns page on tough July as SF Giants try to do the same

SAN FRANCISCO — Logan Webb apparently turned the calendar a day early.

Good thing, too, because the Giants needed every pitch of his second career complete game shutout Wednesday night to claim a split of their two-game Bay Bridge series against the A’s. Facing Ross Stripling, one of the worst starters in the majors since being shipped across the Bay this winter, the Giants managed just four hits and a lone run in a 1-0 win.

One of Webb’s most dominant starts of the season, if not his career, couldn’t have come at a better time.

Not only did it allow them to overcome another meager night from a lineup that received little help at Tuesday’s trade deadline — and keep pace in the National League wild card standings, where they still trail four teams by 4½ games for the final spot — but it should assuage any concerns that Webb’s most difficult month since ascending to the top of the rotation was a sign of anything to come.

Webb took a 6.65 ERA in his previous four July starts into Wednesday’s game and lowered that figure to 4.78, but it still amounted to the highest ERA he has posted over the course of one calendar month since his 6.94 ERA over the final month of the 2020 season.

He acknowledged he was pitching with extra motivation given his recent struggles.

“I’ve been struggling a little bit, so I just wanted to go out there and get back to what I’m good at,” Webb said. “Today was a perfect example of that.”

Going the distance for the third time in his career, Webb completed seven innings for a major league-leading 12th time but hadn’t done so since July 4, also the last time he earned a win. In between, he made three starts and allowed at least four runs and eight hits in each of them, issuing an uncharacteristic seven walks the past two times he took the mound.

“His movement was back today,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Backdoor sinkers, changeups going straight down. He’s been using his slider or sweeper — whatever we’re calling it these days — a little bit more. But the changeup is his bread and butter, and when that’s good, he leans on it.”

J.J. Bleday lined a 108 mph single off Brett Wisely’s glove in the first inning that gave Oakland runners at the corners and one out, but Webb painted the outside corner with sinkers to ring up the next two batters, ending the inning, and didn’t allow another runner to reach third base.

In the moment, Webb said he thought to himself, “Really, you’re going to do this again?”

Webb had 5.32 ERA in the first inning this season, and after getting out of the jam unscathed, Melvin said, “it felt like he had his stuff right away.

“As the game went along, he just got better and better. There were a few base runners at first, but it was pretty good the entire game. I think a lot had to do with getting out of the first inning.”

As Webb took the mound to begin the ninth inning, his pitch count stood at 96 and Camilo Doval had begun to warm in the bullpen. But there were few scenarios that would have resulted in Webb coming out of the game. There wasn’t so much as a discussion between Melvin and his starter after the eighth inning.

“If he had any problems, he would have said something,” Melvin said. “He was going out, and I was hoping he wanted to go back out. … I couldn’t see taking him out without giving up a run.”

After the eighth, Webb said pitching coach Bryan Price gave him one look — “like, ‘You good?’” — and he responded by nodding his head affirmatively. Getting Seth Brown to roll over on a changeup for the final out, Webb finished with 106 pitches and was met on the mound by Bailey for a subdued celebration.

Time of game: 1 hour, 55 minutes, one tick quicker than the only other shutout of his career, last July 9 against the Rockies.

“I knew it was quick,” Webb said. “In the (bottom of the eighth) inning with two outs, it was a weird, random thought — I don’t know why I would think of this — I almost tried to look at the time on the iPad. I was like, ‘I probably shouldn’t do that. I should probably lock in a little more.’ But I knew it was pretty quick.”

All the more impressive considering the opponent, and not because of Webb’s 5.68 ERA in five previous starts against the cross-bay rivals. The A’s — yes, the A’s — scored the second-most runs in the majors this month, even after being blanked on its final day.

It has been a different story for the Giants’ bats, who went silent for the second consecutive day after not getting a meaningful upgrade before Tuesday’s trade deadline. After being held to five hits in Tuesday’s loss, they pulled out a win behind Webb despite producing only four.

Stripling entered Wednesday with a 6.02 ERA, higher than all but six pitchers with as many innings, but limited his former team to one run over 5⅔ innings. The only run the Giants were able to manufacture came when Mike Yastrzemski advanced from first to third on a single from Marco Luciano and scored on a sacrifice fly from Brett Wisely.

“You’d like to give Logan a little bit more breathing room to where every pitch doesn’t matter,” Melvin said. “It’s a little frustrating that we weren’t able to do more offensively today.”