MILWAUKEE — Logan Webb showed no signs of the bum back that forced him from his last start, matching Milwaukee ace and St. Mary’s alumnus Corbin Burnes pitch-for-pitch and keeping his shutout bid intact until his 107th and final offering Saturday afternoon.
Yet, it took Mitch Haniger’s second home run in as many games for the Giants to secure their 10th win in their past 12 games, 3-1.
With a 419-foot, two-run shot off the batter’s eye in center field in the top of the eighth, Haniger offered a loud and immediate answer to the first run Milwaukee was able to scratch across against Webb in the bottom of the seventh.
In dominant form, Webb blanked the Brewers for 6⅔ innings. But Milwaukee was able to break through with two outs in the seventh, when the Brewers strung together two hits for the first time all day, with shortstop Brice Turang sneaking a triple past first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and into the right field corner and scoring on an almost identical hit by the next batter, Victor Caratini.
Webb’s final pitch led to the Brewers first and only run but also ended the inning, as Michael Conforto fired a rope from right field to nab Caratini advancing to second.
Winning their third straight here in Milwaukee, the Giants (27-25) secured at least a win in this four-game series and guaranteed they will take a winning record home with them to San Francisco.
Although his start was pushed back two days and was closely monitored by the Giants’ training staff, Webb was in top form Saturday, just as he has been all month. He has completed seven innings in four of his five starts this month, only leaving his last one after the sixth out of precaution, and allowed five total runs. In those five May starts, Webb has a 1.30 ERA.
Fanning 11 Brewers, Webb recorded his second double-digit strikeout game of the season and the fifth of his career. He made it through the first eight batters without allowing a base runner, only snapping that streak when a strikeout pitch snuck past Patrick Bailey and allowed Joey Wiemer to take first, and didn’t allow a hit until the fourth — and only four over his seven innings.
Webb’s dominance gave the Giants their 13th straight game of limiting opponents to four or fewer runs, the longest streak in the majors this season.
With one game to go on this trip, the Giants have gotten superb performances from their starting pitchers, the best bullpen work in the majors, timely and powerful hitting and impressive play from the collection of rookies they are regularly rolling out now. They have won in different ways (perhaps no more stark contrast than Friday’s 15-1 rout and Saturday’s pitcher’s duel) and lost only once since leaving home. Everything, as they say, seems to be clicking.
The same could be said for Webb on Saturday.
Disadvantaged by the creeping shadows from the odd 3 p.m. local start, Brewers batters looked foolish against Webb’s devastating sinker-changeup combination.
Giants hitters had to deal with the same conditions and a similarly nasty opponent, but managed to eke out their first and only run against Burnes in the first inning, before Webb even stepped on the mound.
An under-the-weather LaMonte Wade Jr. (after sucking down a full Pedialyte pregame) led off with a single and scored from third on a sac fly from Michael Conforto (that, with the way he’s been hitting, seemed like it had a good chance to leave the yard). Caught leaning on second base, Wade may very well have been picked off by Burnes, but his errant attempt sailed into center field, allowing Wade to advance to third.
But to secure the win, it took the big blast from Haniger, who also added a pair of singles in his second straight three-hit game.