SAN FRANCISCO — While the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, Blake Snell, is spinning his wheels at the starting line, last year’s runner-up, Logab Webb, is off to a flying start.
Webb was in mid-season form on Thursday night, as the Giants’ ace was whipping out nasty changeups and backdoor two-seamers as he carved through the Arizona Diamondbacks and led the Giants to a 5-0 win in a tidy 2 hours, 12 minutes, at Oracle Park.
After back-to-back singles to start the game, Webb retired 19 consecutive batters, striking out five, until he walked Christian Walker in the seventh inning. Then he picked Walker off first base.
Webb completed seven innings while allowing just two singles and a walk as he dominated a potent Diamondbacks team that has averaged 5.6 runs per game this season.
All night, the Giants’ pitching and defense was outstanding.
Shortstop Nick Ahmed, facing the Diamondbacks for the first time since he left the organization after becoming the longest-tenured shortstop in franchise history, made a pair of sensational plays to keep Webb’s gem intact.
When Arizona put two men on base in the first, Ahmed handled a bullet and flipped it to second to get Webb out of trouble. Then in the fifth, Randal Grichuk hit a grounder up the middle that Ahmed sprinted to reach, then he turned his body in midair and fired a perfect strike to retire Grichuk by a hair.
Ahmed ranks near the top of the majors in defensive runs saved (two) and fewest errors by a shortstop (two). He also added a leadoff double to the left-field wall to get the Giants going in a four-run eighth.
In center field, Jung Hoo Lee put on a clinic in route-running when he chased down a blast by Jake McCarthy that would’ve been at least a double, if not a triple had Lee not caught it.
In the fifth inning, McCarthy hammered one that looked destined to find the gap, but Lee ran a perfect route as he sprinted to the spot and made a leaping grab 371 feet from home plate. According to StatCast data, the expected batting average on that hit was .670, and it would’ve been a home run in at least one other ballpark.
Lee was also sensational on offense Thursday, as he used his legs to put pressure on the defense, three times reaching safely on groundballs that never left the infield.
His second hit, a single that bounced off pitcher Logan Allen in the third inning, advanced Patrick Bailey to third base, where he later scored from on a sacrifice fly by LaMonte Wade Jr.
A 1-0 lead was all Webb needed, as he had everything working, including a two-seamer that was moving so much he managed to fan Grichuk looking at strike three right over the middle.
Webb’s fine performance lowered his ERA to 2.93 as he became the first big leaguer to reach 30 innings.
He’s also the first pitcher to complete seven innings in a game three times already this season.
The Padres’ Michael King, the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert and the Angels’ Tyler Anderson are the only pitchers to go at least seven innings more than once this year.
April is usually Webb’s worst month.
In his sixth big league season, Webb entered Thursday’s start with a career .283 average and .751 OPS allowed in April, easily the worst numbers of any month.
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He’s now one of just 16 big leaguers to average at least six innings per start since the beginning of the 2022 season. And he leads all big leaguers in innings (439) since then.
Webb departed to start the eighth inning, when the Giants hitters woke up to finish this one with an exclamation point.
They loaded the bases with one out for Michael Conforto, but when the Diamondbacks brought in a lefty to face the left-handed Conforto, Giants manager Bob Melvin countered by pinch-hitting with Wilmer Flores.
Flores promptly smacked a two-run double down the left-field line to send the 26,896 fans at Oracle Park to their feet. Two batters later, Mike Yastrzemski poked a two-run single into right field to make it 5-0.
And for the first time since late March, the Giants won back-to-back games.
Next up: LHP Blake Snell (0-2, 12.86 ERA) goes against LHP Jordan Montgomery, who is making his Diamondbacks debut.
