SF Giants strike early, stake claim to series vs. Astros

SAN FRANCISCO — After being held in check for the early innings of the first two games of their series against the Astros, the Giants jumped on arguably their toughest pitching matchup of the week Wednesday afternoon and put their second straight series win on ice before their starter, Logan Webb, had broken a sweat.

Behind Webb’s league-leading 11th quality start of the season, the five runs surrendered between the third and fourth innings by his sinkerballing counterpart, Framber Valdez, stood up to send the Giants into their off day on a positive note, 5-3.

They will have a chance to even their record to .500 when they host the Los Angeles Angels on Friday to begin a three-game series.

Lining a knee-high sinker into right field, Austin Slater notched his third hit of the afternoon and drove home Jorge Soler and Brett Wisely for the Giants’ first two runs of the fourth inning, and they would tack on another to make it 5-1 after four, sending the Astros’ ace to his earliest exit of the season.

“It’s huge, especially against a starter like that,” manager Bob Melvin said of the early scoring outburst. “And then we have Webby on the mound. So you really feel good about winning the game.”

Slater was stranded on first after singling to lead off the home half of the first inning but came around to score after bunting his way on base in the third, and drove home a pair with his third hit. In four games since returning from a concussion, Slater has recorded more hits (six) than he had in 25 games before landing on the injured list.

Slater’s longtime platoon partner, Mike Yastrzemski, said it has been “awesome” watching him turn things around of late.

“He’s just grinded it out. He’s kept his attitude up. He’s kept his positivity,” Yastrzemski said of Slater, who has raised his batting average to .212 from .128 with his past four games. “He knew it would turn around. We all knew he would turn it around. So it’s great to see him having the success that we know he’s capable of. A lot of credit to him for just working his tail off.”

Sharing the lineup against the southpaw, Yastrzemski reached base from the nine-hole in both his trips to the plate against Valdez and scored both times. He lined a single to lead off the two-run third inning and was struck in the bill of his helmet his second time up, making it to third on Slater’s two-RBI single and scoring the final run of the inning on Heliot Ramos’ sacrifice fly to center.

“Once we scored two and then scored again, I think that was a big thing for us,” Yastrzemski said. “We’ve had some tendencies of scoring early and then not really keeping our foot on the pedal, and today I thought we did a better job of that.”

The Giants had scored a total of two runs in the first nine innings of the first two games of the series. They were held to one run by Monday’s starter, 24-year-old rookie Spencer Arrighetti, before rallying for three runs and a walkoff win in the bottom of the 10th, and mustered just three hits in Tuesday’s 3-1 loss.

Entering play Wednesday, they had scored 108 runs in the first four innings this season, sixth-fewest in MLB, compared to 164 in the fifth inning onward, the ninth-most.

Valdez, meanwhile, had tossed 16 innings over his previous two starts while limiting opponents to one run apiece.

The pitching matchup pitted two of the majors’ top workhorses and ground-ball pitchers against each other. Since the start of 2021, no other hurlers have ended a larger share of their at-bats on the ground than Webb and Valdez, and only Zack Wheeler and Sandy Alcántara have completed seven innings as frequently.

“You try to keep the ball off the ground,” Melvin said of the Giants’ plan of attack. “Like Slater’s approach, up the middle, the other way, that’s why you keep him in the air. It keeps you on time for a breaking ball, if you’re ever going to try to pull him, which you shouldn’t. But we had some good at-bats and made him throw some pitches.”

“Being a lefty I was just trying not to see his offspeed as much,” said Brett Wisely, who contributed two hits, including a ground-rule double in the fourth-inning rally. “He has really elite offspeed stuff, so I was trying to see a heater up. It runs a lot, so something over the middle of the plate, and let it run in to me a little bit.”

Both starting pitchers were out of the game by the end of the sixth, as Melvin asked only 83 pitches out of Webb before handing the keys over to his bullpen. It was the fewest pitches Webb has thrown in a start this season and only the third time in his past seven starts he hasn’t gone seven.

“I’ve said this a couple times,” Yastrzemski said of Webb. “It’s unfortunate and not fair to him that we expect that now at this point. You never want to put that type of level of success on somebody and expect that to be average. He just goes out there and gives his all every time he gets to pitch. He’s a bulldog out there.”

Webb had no desire to depart after six innings, but extenuating circumstances overruled him.

Before the game, Melvin told Webb he would be working with a limit of 90 pitches as a precaution after tweaking his shoulder on the final play of his last start.

Webb described the ailment as a “zinger”— suffered when he fired more overhand than usual to record his final out against the Rangers — and said it was a nonissue during his start Wednesday, but there was no convincing a manager with arms to burn in his bullpen and an off day in front of him.

“I trust Bob with every decision, and I agreed with him, to be honest,” Webb said. “I mean, I feel great. But it’s a long season and we’ve got a long way to go. So I get why we’re a little cautious with that.”

Even Webb wasn’t able to keep Yordan Alvarez, the Astros’ hulking left fielder, on the ground.

The brick wall in Triples Alley was the only obstacle standing in the way of a two-homer game from the 6-foot-5 slugger, who sent a 109.3 mph missile screaming for a double that led to Houston’s first run in the fourth inning. He refused to be contained the next chance he got against Webb, whacking a changeup below his knees beyond the 399′ sign in left-center for a two-run shot, contributing to all three blemishes on Webb’s pitching line.

“I was kind of in awe when it happened,” Webb said. “That’s the first time that I’ve seen a changeup underneath (the strike zone) that far the other way. When he first hit it, I was like, ‘No way.’ But you tip your cap. That’s one of the best hitters in baseball. … It’s not an easy pitch to hit, and it’s not an easy place to hit home runs, either.”