San Francisco Giants Michael Conforto circles the bases after connecting for a two run home run in the top of the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Stadium in Arlington on Fri Jun 7, 2024 (AP News photo)
Friday, June 7, 2024
Globe Life Field
Arlington, Texas
San Francisco Giants 5 (31-33)
Texas Rangers 2 (30-33)
Win: Logan Webb (5-5)
Loss: David Robertson (2-3)
Save: Camilo Doval (10)
Time: 2:37
Attendance: 35,868
By Stephen Ruderman
The Giants have won two-straight, as a strong start from Logan Webb, three home runs—two from Wilmer Flores—and a three-hit day from Heliot Ramos carried the Giants to a series-opening 5-2 win over old pal Bruce Brochy and the defending world champion Texas Rangers.
The Giants left the hot desert in Arizona for the hot and flat prairie lands of Arlington, Texas to start the second leg of this all-2023 World Series road trip. The Giants enjoyed a day off in Arlington yesterday after they snapped their unfortunate six-game losing streak on Wednesday in Arizona. Friday night, they looked to build on that against Bochy and the Rangers.
The Giants sent their ace, Logan Webb, to the hill, to open the series. The Rangers went with the veteran right-hander, Michael Lorenzen. Both pitchers pitched scoreless innings out of the gate, and Webb pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of first.
Wilmer Flores, who hit a grand slam in the third inning on Wednesday in Arizona, kept his power going, as he hit a home run to left-center field with one out in the top of the second. Webb then pitched another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the second.
Heliot Ramos led off the top of the third with a base-hit, and Matt Chapman walked with one out. However, Michael Conforto flew out to center, and Jorge Soler’s struggles in key RBI situations continued, as he grounded into a force play to end the inning.
With one out in the bottom of the third, Ezequiel Duran singled on a ground ball up the middle for the Rangers’ first hit of the game. However, Webb pitched another scoreless inning regardless.
Flores led off the top of the fourth with his second home run of the game, as he now had three home runs in two games.
“When Flo gets hot, he gets hot,” said Webb. “He hasn’t changed one bit since I’ve met him. Everyday, he does the same exact thing. I think when you’re pretty consistent in what you do, I think good things happen…I feel like the same thing’s happened since he’s been here. He maybe doesn’t play as much early on, then [as] he starts to play more, and the ‘Flo’ comes out. He’s just a professional hitter. I think pitchers that have faced him before will probably say the exact same thing. He lets me know about the one time I faced him, which I think he went 3-for-3 off me [in] my debut.”
Webb pitched another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth.
Ramos led off the fifth by lining a base-hit the other way to right. Patrick Bailey flew out, but Matt Chapman singled on a ground ball to right, and Conforto walked to load the bases with one out.
Bochy pulled Lorenzen for Jonathan Hernandez. Soler and Flores both struck out swinging with the bases loaded, and the Giants wasted yet another opportunity.
Webb had kept the Rangers at bay over the first four innings, but the bottom of the fifth would be very different. Nathaniel Lowe led off the inning with a single to left, and Wyatt Langford hit a double to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Robbie Grossman put the Rangers on the board with a sacrifice fly to just shy of the warning track out to Mike Yastrzemski in right-center, which scored Lowe and moved Langford over to third.
Bob Melvin then did something very uncommon, and had the Giants’ infield play in to keep the tying run from scoring. It backfired, however, as Duran singled on a ground ball to left-center that very well could have been fielded by Brett Wisely at short had the infield been playing at normal depth.
The game was now tied 2-2. Leody Tavares to left, but Marcus Semien singled Duran over to third. With the Rangers 90 feet away from their first lead of the day, Webb was able to get Josh Smith to end the inning.
Yastrzemski drew a walk to start the top of the sixth, but Hernandez retired the side in order afterwards. Webb then settled back down to throw a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth.
Right-hanger David Robertson, now one of the longest-tenured players in Baseball, came in to pitch for the Rangers in the top of the seventh. Bailey grounded out to third to start the inning, but Chapman walked, and Conforto hit a two-run home run out to right-center to put the Giants back ahead.
“Earlier in the at-bat, I think I just took a bad swing on a cutter…..I just had a feeling [Robertson] was going to go back to it, and I took a better swing late in the at-bat,” said Conforto. “[I] always have to try and remember less is more, especially with cutter guys.
Logan Webb ended his night with a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh. Webb is an innings eater, which made it a bit surprising that he didn’t go out for one more inning, but he did appear to have a grimace on his face as he walked off the field.
“I think he [was] just kinda off balanced [when he threw his last pitch],” said Melvin. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. Hopefully, it’s just a little bit of a stinger.”
Webb gave up four runs in what was still a mostly-solid outing against the Yankees last Saturday. While the numbers didn’t reflect that in his last start, the numbers were undeniable in his start Friday night. Two runs and five hits over seven innings with six strikeouts and not a single walk, not bad.
“I thought to start the game, that was probably the best stuff I’ve had all year,” said Webb. “The days you get the mechanics and the feel, usually good things happen, and today was one of those days where I felt good. I thought my mechanics were better…..I kinda got away from it [in the fifth], and then I felt like I got to it towards the end.”
Grant Anderson, who finished the top of the seventh for Texas, was back out for the top of the eighth. Thairo Estrada lined a base-hit up the middle to start the inning, and Wisely walked. Ramos then came up and grounded a base-hit up the middle into center field for his third hit of the game to knock in Estrada and make it 5-2.
Bochy pulled Anderson for Jesus Tinoco, who retired the side in order to end the inning. Submariner Tyler Rogers followed that up with a shutdown 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth.
Gerson Garabito pitched a 1-2-3 top of the ninth for the Rangers, and Melvin brought in his closer, Camilo Doval, for the first duke since the latter gave up four runs on a career-high four hits in what was a brutal blown save and loss on Sunday. It was a big outing for Doval, and responded nicely by shutting down the Rangers 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth to close it out.
Logan Webb got the win; David Robertson took the loss; and Camilo Doval picked up his 10th save of the year.
The Giants improve to 31-33, and they’ll try and make it three in a row in a late-afternoon affair Saturday. Left-hander Kyle Harrison (4-3, ERA 4.18) will go for San Francisco for Texas Andrew Heaney (2-6, ERA 3.99). First pitch will be at 3:05 p.m. in Arlington, 1:05 p.m in San Francisco
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