Webb shines as Giants blank Dodgers, Red Sox pummel Rays
>>LOS ANGELES: Logan Webb dominated in his play-off debut on Friday, striking out 10 in over seven shut-out innings as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 in the opening game of the National League Series.
Webb got plenty of support from the Giants’ sluggers as San Francisco scored all their runs off home runs in front of a crowd of 41,900 at Oracle Park.
Buster Posey hit a two-run home run while Kris Bryant and Brandon Crawford added solo shots for the Giants, who are going head-to-head in the postseason with the Dodgers for the first time in the 131-year history of their rivalry.
Webb, who allowed no walks, limited the Dodgers to five hits in his longest outing of the season.
He said he was nervous when taking the mound for his first postseason game.
“I was trying to calm down. The first two pitches, I was jittery. After that I settled in,” he said. “The guys played good defence behind me. It was a fun night.”
Crawford’s homer came with two outs in the eighth off the Dodgers’ pitcher, Alex Vesia, to round out the scoring. Tyler Rogers got the final out of the eighth inning and Camilo Doval worked a 1-2-3 ninth to complete the Giants’ shut-out.
Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler surrendered three runs on six hits in 6⅓ innings.
In the American League, the Boston Red Sox hammered a franchise play-off record five home runs as they pounded the Tampa Bay Rays 14-6 to level their play-off series at one game each.
Boston had 20 hits on the night, bouncing back from a game-one shutout in emphatic style at Tropicana Field in Tampa.
After Boston put two early runs on the board, the Rays responded with a grand slam from first baseman Jordan Luplow.
Yandi Diaz added a run-scoring single to put the Rays up 5-2 after one inning.
But Boston hit two home runs in both the third and fifth innings to regain control.
Alex Verdugo and Xander Bogaerts hit solo blasts in the third and JD Martinez belted a three-run homer in the fifth — when Enrique Hernandez added a solo blast.
The record-setting fifth-homer came from Rafael Devers in the top of the eighth inning and put the Red Sox up 11-6.
Christian Vazquez drove in a run in the ninth and Hernandez scored two with his fifth hit of the night.
The Red Sox will try to ride the momentum when the best-of-five American League division series shifts to Boston tomorrow morning, Thai time.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros powered their way to a 2-0 lead over the Chicago White Sox in their AL series, erupting for five runs in the seventh inning on the way to a 9-4 victory.
The burst included a two-run double from Carlos Correa and a two-run homer from Kyle Tucker that saw the Astros break a 4-4 deadlock.
They took a 2-0 lead and can wrap up a spot in the AL Championship series with a victory in Chicago tomorrow morning, Thai time.
Elsewhere in the NL, the Milwaukee Brewers emerged with a 2-1 victory from a tense battle with the Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta starting pitcher Charlie Morton and Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes duelled through six innings with neither surrendering a run.
But Morton opened the seventh by hitting Avisail Garcia with a pitch and four pitches later Rowdy Tellez slammed a two-run home run off Morton to snap a scoreless tie and put the Brewers on the road to victory.