Regulars do damage; Webb sparkles again

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — With just a tweak or two, the Giants’ lineup Tuesday against the Indians had an Opening Night flair to it. Add a DH, say, and maybe another righthanded bat, but otherwise: that’s what will be on tap April 1 against Seattle lefty Marco Gonzales.

Most of the Giants’ startagainstlefties regulars were on the road in a 70 win — even the veterans — and it was a good day for hitting with the wind blowing hard out to right much of the first half of the game. Donovan Solano, Austin Slater, Tommy La Stella and Brandon Crawford all went deep — and Logan Webb continued his standout spring, working another five scoreless innings despite the howling gusts at Goodyear Ballpark.

Minorleaguer Will Wilson also homered, blasting a 100 mph pitch from Emmanuel Clase out to right in the ninth.

Webb particularly enjoyed having a representative team behind him. “It’s always great when you have those guys out there. They were mashing,” he said.

“It felt really good to see all of us together,” Solano said, with Erwin Higueros interpreting. “If that’s how our lineup is going to be for Opening Night, I can see us winning quite a few games if we produce the same way we did today.” Solano’s homer was a tworun shot to center in the first, his second of the spring. He is batting .464 with a 1.266 OPS this spring and has struck out only once. “Yes, I want to avoid striking out,” he said. “I see myself the type of player that puts the ball in play, and I know I’m trying to get extrabase hits, but all the sudden I’m hitting home runs. I think that’s a good thing for me right now. I understand that I will strike out eventually, but

I’m trying to avoid it.”

Webb has been sensational throughout the exhibition season, allowing three hits in four scoreless outings with 17 strikeouts and one walk in 11 innings. Tuesday, he had to work around two errors behind him. In the first, La Stella’s throwing error put Harold Ramirez at second with one out, but Webb struck out Jake Bauers and got Bobby Bradley to ground out. In the third,Crawford made a twoout error, and Webb struck out Ramirez. Webb allowed only one hit, by Bauers leading off the fourth, and Buster Posey threw him out trying to steal second.

In his first two stints in the big leagues, Webb might have allowed such errors to get to him and let an inning snowball out of control. Tuesday, he said, “Those were both bangbang plays, that happens sometimes. You’ve just got to keep throwing.”

Manager Gabe Kapler said it was nice to see everything coming together, and he pointed to the savvy baserunning Tuesday, particularly from Slater, who stole a base after nearly being picked off and stayed headsup on a tricky read on a lineout by Jason Vosler. Slater, a righthanded hitter, is a good bet to be in the order April 1, and Wilmer Flores, who didn’t play Tuesday, is a possibility at first, or maybe third if Evan Longoria is limited to the DH spot by plantar fasciitis.

⏩ Kapler still plans to get Longoria onto the field Friday and first baseman Brandon Belt (mono) a pinchhit atbat in the next game or two.