A GIANT STEP AHEAD
Webb blanks Dodgers, Posey clubs big homer in Game 1 victory
SAN FRANCISCO >> The legend of Logan Webb is growing.
After turning in one of the most memorable regular-season performances in Giants history in a division-clinching victory Sunday against the Padres, Webb returned to the mound on Friday at Oracle Park for his postseason debut and delivered one of the best starts in the team’s storied playoff history.
With help from Buster Posey, Kris Bryant and Brandon Crawford who all homered, Webb led the Giants past the rival Dodgers and earned a well-deserved win in a 4-0 victory in Game 1 of the NLDS.
“I don’t think there’s any question the last game of the season for Logan carried over into this one,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “We talked a little bit at the last game of the regular season how much confidence he has, but that’s been building for a long time.”
In the first-ever playoff matchup between the Giants and Dodgers in baseball’s modern era, Webb tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings, racked up 10 strikeouts and departed to a thunderous ovation from a crowd of 41,935 at Oracle Park. In a high-stakes showdown, the right-hander from Rocklin became the fourth major league pitcher ever to record double-digit strikeouts without walking a batter in his postseason debut.
“Logan, the star of the night,” Bryant said. “I’m just so impressed with him. His first playoff experience and he was out there pretending like it was a game in the backyard. It was really fun to watch.”
The list of Giants pitchers with comparable playoff performances to Webb is unsurprisingly short as he joined franchise icons Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner in a club of pitchers to record at least 7 2/3 scoreless innings while striking out 10-plus hitters.
“I actually thought it felt a little bit like (Tim) Lincecum’s against the Braves in (2010),” Posey said while recalling Lincecum’s 14-strikeout outing against Atlanta in the NLDS. “Timmy had nine shutout, but Logan had the potential to do that tonight if he stays out there.”
After Tommy La Stella reached base with a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first, Posey crushed one of the farthest opposite-field home runs ever hit by a righthanded batter at the Giants’ waterfront ballpark. With Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler behind in the count 3-0, Posey drove a 96-mph fastball off a brick column behind the right-field arcade seats before the ball bounced into McCovey Cove.
“The dang column kept me from a splash hit,” Posey said.
The homer was Posey’s first in the playoffs since Game 4 of the 2012 World Series, when he hit a sixth-inning home run off former Tigers starter and current Dodgers ace Max Scherzer in the Giants’ clinching victory.
Posey’s swing against Buehler was hardly a sign of things to come for the Giants as the Dodgers right-hander settled in and held San Francisco scoreless over his next five innings. Bryant and La Stella each had two hits against the Dodgers starter, but every other Giants hitter was flummoxed by a pitcher who had five quality starts against them during the regular season.
Buehler was cruising when manager Dave Roberts allowed him to take the mound in the bottom of the seventh, but the decision backfired on the Dodgers when Bryant hit a solo home run out to left-center field to extend the Giants’ lead to 3-0.
Bryant’s homer was his first in the postseason since the 2017 NLCS when the former Cubs star took Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw deep in a blowout loss for Chicago.
With the Giants ahead 3-0 in the ninth, fans at Oracle Park chanted “M-V-P” as Crawford came to the plate to face Dodgers southpaw Alex Vesia. The veteran shortstop’s homer was the second he has hit in the playoffs and follows the go-ahead grand slam he slugged in the 2014 NL wild card game at PNC Park against the Pirates. Posey, Bryant and Crawford all have World Series rings and extensive postseason experience, but their heroics from Friday’s game against the Dodgers won’t overshadow the greatest showing of Webb’s brief career.
The Giants starter threw a season-high 38 changeups and set a new career-high by generating 12 swings and misses with the pitch.
“He’s got three pitches that are elite,” Posey said. “It’s definitely a luxury on my end to pick and choose depending on the game and the lineup that we have and the action I’m seeing on his pitches to which one we want to lean on more.”
The 24-year-old posted one of the highest groundball rates of any major league starter this year and found success keeping the ball out of the air against a Dodgers lineup that recorded nine groundball outs against him.
“I think to be quite honest we didn’t make adjustments,” Roberts said. “I thought he had good command tonight, mostly glove side versus right-handed hitters. The slider, the change down below. We just chased a lot more than we should have.”
The Giants committed two errors on Friday, but Webb received crucial help from his defense in the fourth inning when Stella stopped Justin Turner’s groundball up the middle and started a sensational 4-6-3 double play with a back-handed glove flip to Crawford.
The play was reminiscent of the iconic 4-6-3 double play Crawford and former teammate Joe Panik turned in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series against the Royals, which also started with an ontarget glove flip that came with a high degree of difficulty.
“Definitely a nice SportsCenter top 10 play,” Bryant said.