Webb's combo making way back

The deadly sinker-slider was a key to his success

DENVER >> After his last start, Logan Webb was hesitantly optimistic but slightly coy.

“I think those first couple outings, you guys know what pitch I'm talking about, I wasn't very confident in,” Webb said. “I think we're getting closer to getting that pitch where it was last year.” That pitch is Webb's slider. Pairing it with his sinker, Webb developed the devastating one-two punch that he rode to the second-lowest ERA in the majors during his final 20 starts of last season. Through his first six starts this season, though, Webb relied on a different pitch mix, and he hasn't been the same pitcher.

Webb has been more reliant on his changeup to start this season than at any point since he returned from a shoulder strain last July and began his ascension to the club's young ace. He threw the pitch 36% of the time in April, an

even higher rate than in his similarly rocky start to last season, while turning to his sinker only 34% of the time and his slider on 28% of his pitches, his lowest usage of both pitches since last May.

“It's the same thing I did last year,” Webb said. “I started off and my slider wasn't great, so I went heavy changeup. Just throwing it a little too much. It was the same thing this year.”

But then, last Friday in St. Louis, that sinker-slider mix reappeared.

While limiting the Cardinals to a run over six innings — his strongest performance since tossing eight innings in his second start of the year — Webb threw more sinkers, more sliders and fewer changeups than he had in any start this season.

Sinkers: 44%. Sliders: 34%. Changeup: 20%. The breakdown bore a striking resemblance to the final months of last season, when, would you look at that, Webb threw 44% sinkers, just under 30% sliders, and right around 20% changeups.

It was when he got the slider working last season, “that's when he started to become Logan Webb,” catcher and close confidant Curt Casali said.

“When that pitch is on, that really rounds out the arsenal,” echoed pitching coach Andrew Bailey. “And when he feels confident throwing it in terms of execution, it's another level.”

There is a reason why Casali said Webb is “right on schedule.”

It just so happened to also be in his seventh start last season, on May 11 against the Texas Rangers, that something clicked for Webb and the slider. In that start, Webb debuted a combo of at least 25% sliders and 30% sinkers that he used so effectively for the rest of the season, striking out 10 batters in six innings in a sign of things to come. He went his next 13 starts without allowing more than one earned run and went unbeaten over his final 20.

“Getting that slider on point is a priority,” Bailey said. But, he added, “you look at any trends in major league baseball and you have guys that peak earlier in the year and guys that peak later. I think it's just a natural progression.”

CASALI CATCHES FIRE, GAINS EDGE OVER BART >> The Giants have divided their catching duties to a 60-40 split between Joey Bart and Curt Casali through their first 35 games, with the rookie getting the majority of the starts.

But for the first time this season, the surging veteran Casali started consecutive games and at least two of a three-game series. He was penciled in to the nine hole again Tuesday night, after homering twice in Monday night's 7-6 win against Colorado.