Webb’s legend keeps growing
Giants slug 3 HRs in Game 1 win over Dodgers, Posey jumps first
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 enjoyed 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 welldeserved win in a convincing 4-0 victory in Game 1 of the NLDS.
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.
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.
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 right-handed batter at the Giants’ waterfront ballpark.
With Dodgers righthander Walker Buehler behind in the count 3-0, Posey drove a 96-mile per hour fastball off a brick column behind the right field arcade seats before the ball bounced into McCovey Cove.
The homer was Posey’s first in the playoffs since Game 4 of the 2012 World Series, when he hit a sixthinning 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 Tommy 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 for 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 “MV-P” as Crawford came to the plate to face Dodgers southpaw Alex Vesia. The veteran shortstop’s homer was the second he’s 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 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.
The Giants committed two errors on Friday, but Webb received crucial help from his defense in the fourth inning when Tommy La 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.