Colorado gets to Webb, takes series at Coors
A team beset by injuries endured its first losing road trip of the season and lost its best player, too.
The Giants wound up on the wrong end of a 65 game at Coors Field on Wednesday after Logan Webb struggled in the fourth inning and catcher Buster Posey — who leads the team with a .394 average and seven homers — came out of the game with right hamstring tightness.
“I don’t think that it’s any secret that we were fairly banged up this entire trip,” said manager Gabe Kapler, who believes Posey might be back in the lineup Friday. “It’s not to make an excuse for the record on the trip, we have to play better baseball. We have to make better pitches and get on base. That’s how you win baseball games.”
San Francisco has 11 men on the injured list, not including Posey, who came out of the series finale in Denver in the seventh; Alex Dickerson, who was iffy with shoulder soreness but pinch hit in the eighth; and Wilmer Flores, who was bruised after fouling a ball off his knee.
“There have been a lot, but you just kind of ride it out and trust the guys that are filling in will come in and fill their shoes,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said. “That’s part of baseball. There’s going to be bumps and bruises and stuff like that. Fortunately, so far, it seems like nothing’s too bad.”
Webb baffled the Rockies with three perfect innings before running into trouble in the fourth. With little leeway provided by homeplate umpire Tony Randazzo, Webb allowed all six runs in the inning as the Rockies took the series two games to one.
“I don’t know,” Webb said of the strike zone. “I think I was a little bit wilder in that last inning, and that tends to lead to more calls going the other way.”
The most inconsistent member of a strong Giants rotation, Webb walked three in the fourth, all of whom scored. He threw 38 pitches in the inning before being lifted with two outs. “That one got away from him a little bit,” Kapler said.
Webb has one of the better changeups in the game, though he has gone away from it in recent weeks after it became apparent that opponents were sitting on it; entering Wednesday, teams were batting .375 on the pitch. Against the Rockies, Webb threw only 16 changeups, 24% of his output. His slider was his most effective pitch.
Reliever Matt Wisler allowed a basesloaded single by pitcher Jon Gray on the first pitch he threw, then a tworun single by Raimel Tapia. Wisler, a slider enthusiast who was signed as a free agent this winter, has been charged with runs in six of 14 outings, and opponents are 8for17 against him with men on base.
“More recently, I actually think he’s doing a better job,” Kapler said. “You actually can see some confidence. I know it doesn’t match up with with the line scores.”
The Giants got another tworun homer from Crawford, his second of the series, and Darin Ruf smacked a tworun shot, too, cutting Colorado’s lead to two in the seventh inning. A ninthinning rally fizzled, though Crawford and Flores walked to start the inning against Daniel Bard; Curt Casali struck out and was clearly unhappy with a firstpitch strike call, and pitcher Alex Wood, complaining from the bench, was ejected.
“We had a frustrated dugout,” Kapler said, “There were some moments of frustration for Logan and Buster, and ultimately for Curt.”
Bard struck out Steven Duggar looking and, after Crawford stole third and scored on an error by catcher Dom Nuñez, Ruf grounded out.