San Francisco Giants pitcher Logan Webb delivers against the Houston Astros in the top of the sixth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wed Jun 12, 2024 (AP News photo)
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Oracle Park
San Francisco, California
Houston Astros 3 (31-38)
San Francisco Giants 5 (34-35)
Win: Logan Webb (6-5)
Loss: Framber Valdez (5-4)
Save: Camilo Doval (12)
Time: 2:07
Attendance: 34,506
By Stephen Ruderman
SAN FRANCISCO–Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Oracle Park
San Francisco, California
Houston Astros 3 (31-38)
San Francisco Giants 5 (34-35)
Win: Logan Webb (6-5)
Loss: Framber Valdez (5-4)
Save: Camilo Doval (12)
Time: 2:07
Attendance: 34,506
By Stephen Ruderman
SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants’ offense came to life, as they backed up another solid start from Logan Webb with five runs enroute to a 5-3 win over the Houston Astros to take the series.
The home run-happy ways of the Giants’ offense have caught up to them, as they have been limited to just six runs over their last three games. As the Giants looked to take the rubber match of this series on this sunny but hazy getaway afternoon at Oracle Park, the offense would need to wake up and not solely rely on home runs.
With their ace, Logan Webb, on the mound, if the offense would be flexible, the Giants would be in pretty good shape today. Webb started the game with three scoreless innings.
The big left-hander, Framber Valdez made the start for Houston, and he pitched two scoreless innings to start his day, but the Giants would threaten in the bottom of the third. Mike Yastrzemski led things off with a line-drive base-hit up the middle on the first pitch of the inning, and that got things going.
“[I’ve] just been working on staying tall through the middle of the field lately, and it’s been feeling really good,” said Yastrzemski. It’s just about getting on base, honestly, at that point.”
Slater reached on a bunt single, and both runners advanced to second and third on a ground out by Heliot Ramos.
Wilmer Flores was then sawed off, as he hit a broken-bay fly ball to shallow left-center field, and Astros’ left-fielder Yordan Alvarez came in to make a running basket catch. It would be a sacrifice fly, as Yastrzemski scored the game’s first run, and Slater advanced to third. Matt Chapman then clubbed a double into the gap in right-center to knock in Slater and make it 2-0.
The Astros had a response in the top of the fourth. Alvarez doubled high off the wall in left with one out, and Jon Singleton grounded out to first to move Alvarez over to third. Jeremy Pena then hit a chopper the other way that first-baseman Wilmer Flores had to go almost all the way to second to field, but Webb was late in covering the bag, which allowed Alvarez to score and get Houston on the board.
The Giants had their own response off Valdez in the bottom of the fourth. Jorge Soler’s success with the bases empty continued, as he lined a base-hit to left to start the inning, and Brett Wisely stayed hit with a ground rule double to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Thairo Estrada swung out swinging, and Yastrzemski was hit by a pitch near his head to load the bases for the now-red-hot Austin Slater.
Slater hit the walk-off base-hit in the bottom of the 10th on Monday, and he was back in the lineup today to face Valdez, who he was 3-for-6 against coming into today. Slater already singled in his first two plate appearances before stepping in against Valdez in the bottom of the fourth.
With the count at 1-2, Slater took a low sinker from Valdez and flipped a base-hit to right-center to score a pair and make it 4-1. Make it 3-for-3 on the day for Slayer, and 6-for-9 in his career against Valdez. Ramos then knocked in Yastrzemski with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 5-1.
For his second straight outing, Webb had real run support. He had four runs of support in his last outing last Friday against the Rangers in Arlington, Texas, and Wednesday, he had five runs of support through the first four innings.
“It was awesome,” said Webb. “Those guys [have] been grinding [and have] been getting a lot of hits, and then [they] put it all together Wednesday. Obviously, as a pitcher, you love that, but it was great to see.”
Following the Giants’ three-run bottom of the fourth, Webb pitched a shutdown 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fifth. The Giants had runners at first and second with one out against the Astros’ new pitcher, Seth Martinez, in the bottom of the fifth, but this was the Giants’ offense, so they had to waste at least one opportunity today, and that’s what they did.
“Once we scored two, and then we scored again, I think that was a big thing for us,” said Yastrzemski. “We’ve had some tendencies of scoring early, and then not really keeping our foot on the pedal. Today, I felt like we did a better job at that. We still could’ve done it a little bit more [and] tried to blow the game open a little bit, but you never complain about a win.”
The Astros would narrow the gap in the top of the sixth. Alex Bregman led off the inning with a base-hit up the middle, and Alvarez, who nearly missed a home run his previous time up, hit a home run into the Giants’ bullpen that barely cleared the 399-foot marker out in left-center.
It was now 5-3, but Webb was then able to retire the side to end the inning. That would be it for another solid start for Webb. Webb did give up seven hits, but three runs over six innings is your classic quality outing, and he certainly gave the Giants what they needed Wednesday.
“It’s unfortunate and not fair to him that we expect that now at this point,” said Yastrzemski. “You never wanna 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, and he’s so fun to play behind. He’s a bulldog out there, so there’s always those moments where he has those stellar games, but all those stellar games feel normal, which is not really fair to him. It’s just an attest to how good of a pitcher he really is.”
Webb had only thrown 83 pitches, but after hurting himself on the final play of his last outing, Bob Melvin did not want to push it with Webb Wednesday. Webb did not go into much detail about the injury when he was interviewed after the game last Friday, but he acknowledged that it was precursor to a shoulder injury that he had in 2021.
“I didn’t want to come out of the game, I can tell you that right now,” said Webb. “I trust Bob with every decision, and I agreed with him to be honest. I feel great, but it’s a long season and a long way to go, so I get why we were cautious with that.”
Slater nearly got his fourth hit with one out in the bottom of the sixth, as he reached on a wild throw from Alex Bregman on a ground ball to third. However, even though it was a very close play regardless of the throw, it was ruled an error on Bregman.
It was still quite a day for Slater, the longest-tenured Giant, who went 3-for-5, and has been swinging the bat well after a brutal start to his season. It was his first three-hit game since Sept. 25 of last year. Interestingly, the last time Slater had a five-at bat game was exactly a year ago today, when he went 3-for-5 against the Cardinals in St. Louis.
“He’s just grinded it out,” said Yastrzemski. “He has kept his attitude up; he’s kept his positivity; he knew it would turn around; [and] we all knew it would turn around, so it’s great to see him having the success we know he’s capable of, and a lot of credit to him for just working his tail off.”
Despite the error, Martinez ended up pitching a scoreless inning in the bottom of the sixth. The Giants’ bullpen took it from there. Ryan Walker threw a 1-2-3 top of the seventh, and Tyler Rogers pitched a scoreless top of the eighth. Shawn Dubin came in for Houston and threw scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth.
It was off to the ninth, which meant that it was time for Camilo Doval. Doval has been shaky as of late, and it showed a bit Wednesday, as he retired Singleton and Peña on well-hit deep fly balls. However, he did strike out Dubon on a check swing to end it, and hey, – 1-2-3 inning’s a 1-2-3 inning.
Logan Webb got the win; Framber Valdez got the loss; and Camilo Doval picked up his 12th save. The Giants improve to 34-35, and they’ll have a chance to pad their record against a weak Los Angeles Angels team this weekend.
“At this point, it’s just about trying to stay in the mix,” said Yastrzemski. “We’ve still got some guys that are banged up a little bit, and it’s about starting healthy and playing good consistent baseball. We’ll let the record just take care of itself.”
This win came without a home run, as they did get the key RBI hits when they mattered today.
“That’s the way we’re gonna need to be able to play, especially at home,” said Melvin. “Sometimes, it’s tough to hit homers here. It had a big impact, the home runs that we hit on the road, those get crooked numbers up right away, and that has a big impact, but here at home, it’s a little bit more difficult at times, so we’re gonna have to play the way we did today: Get guys on base, [and] get some key hits.”
The Giants will enjoy a day off at home Thursday, and then they will welcome in the Angels for three starting Friday night. Spencer Howard (0-0, 2.93 ERA) will take the hill for the Giants when they open the series on Friday. The Angels have yet to announce their starter for Friday’s game, which will get underway at 7:15 p.m.
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