Rotation delivering again for the Giants
DENVER — After back-toback series losses to the Braves and Brewers, the Giants struggled to field a starting rotation and were in one of their deepest team slumps of the season at the plate.
Less than a week later, the club’s three healthy starters — Logan Webb, Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani — have delivered outstanding performances while the lineup once again looks like a feared group capable of leading the team deep into October.
With another double-digit outburst from their offense and Webb’s ninth consecutive quality start, the Giants beat the Rockies 12-3 on Tuesday at Coors Field and maintained their 1.0game lead over the Dodgers in the National League West.
Dating back to May 11, the Giants are 14-1 in Webb’s last 15 games as the 24-year-old righthander has posted a 1.70 ERA during that time that leads all major league starters.
With two triples and a double, center fielder Steven Duggar led
another balanced effort from a Giants lineup that recorded nine extra-base hits before Mike Yastrzemski hit the club’s first home run of the game in the seventh inning to extend San Francisco’s lead to 11-1.
Each of the first five Giants hitters saw at least five pitches against Rockies starter Chi Chi González, including Tommy La Stella, Brandon Belt and Buster Posey, who all doubled in the sixth pitch of their respective plate appearances. A Brandon Crawford RBI single on the eighth pitch of his at-bat gave Webb a 3-0 lead before he even took the mound and extended the Giants’ first-inning dominance against the Rockies this season.
In 15 games between the two clubs, the Giants have outscored the Rockies 28-2 in the first inning. The massive run differential is aided by San Francisco’s 10-run first-inning outburst in Game 1 of a May 4 doubleheader, but there’s no question early leads have played a significant factor in helping the Giants win 11 games against the Rockies thus far.
Duggar’s first triple of the night keyed a two-run second-inning rally that featured an RBI double from Webb, who laced a 104.4-mile per hour double down the left field line that stood as the hardest-hit ball of the first five extra-base hits for the Giants.
“I told Donnie (Ecker) and (Andrew Bailey) I was sitting slider, and thankfully he threw a slider,” Webb said. “If I’d gotten a fastball, I was screwed.”