PHILADELPHIA — Logan Webb, the Giants’ ace, is supposed to be the pitcher who stops skids and starts winning streaks. But, with one swing from Bryce Harper, the hopes of a Webb gem capable of turning the tides were dashed not long after first pitch Sunday for the second time this road trip.
Attacking the Phillies’ slugger carefully all night, Webb elevated a 1-1 changeup just enough, catching just enough of the plate, so that Harper was able to barrel it up and send it into the bullpens in right-center field, putting the game out of reach for the Giants, who lost for the fifth time in six games on this trip, 5-4.
Taking a streak of 19 scoreless innings into his start Thursday in Boston, Webb has allowed nine runs (eight earned) over his past two games. He trudged back to the third-base dugout after using his 98th pitch of the evening to record the final out of the fourth inning with his team in a four-run hole.
Lasting only 3⅔ his last time out, Webb failed to complete five innings in consecutive starts for the first time since August 2022. He had made 46 in between, completing five or more innings in all but three of them.
“As the guy they look at as the No. 1 pitcher on the team, I’ve got to be better than that,” Webb said. “The last two, I think I’ve been not very good. I started the road trip off with a pretty bad game and I kind of kept that going today. I felt good today, I thought my pitches were doing the right stuff. It just didn’t get the results.”
At 15-20, the Giants fell further below .500 than they have been all season, 7½ games back of the Dodgers, who swept the Atlanta Braves in a matchup of the sport’s heavyweights. One team on the field in Philadelphia showed it belongs in the same company.
“It’s a lot of things going on,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re not pitching well. We’re not swinging the bats well. We’re not swinging it well with runners in scoring position. And our defense hasn’t been good lately, either.”
The Phillies made Webb work, fouling off 20 of his 98 pitches. When his pitches weren’t fouled back, too often they were just missing the the strike zone of home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso, who got an earful from pitching coach Bryan Price during a mound visit.
It didn’t help Webb’s case that he didn’t have Patrick Bailey (concussion), one of the best pitch framers in the game, stealing strikes for him. With Blake Sabol behind the plate, many of Webb’s changeups were called balls just below the knees.
“Kind of similar to last game, just a lot of good takes down in the zone,” Webb said. “When they did swing, they were fouling it off. I just threw a lot of pitches, just way too many than I should be throwing. Looking back on it, I thought they were strikes. Even their manager during the game said something about how they were balls. Hats off to them, I guess.”
The Phillies also took advantage of Sabol on the base paths, swiping four bags, including Nick Castellanos’ first of the season that put him in position to tack on a fourth run in the third inning when the next batter, Bryson Stott, lined a two-out double into left field.
The first three were driven in by Harper’s blast, which left the bat at 107 mph and traveled 410 feet, after Webb put the leadoff man on with one of two walks and surrendered a well-struck single to J.T. Realmuto.
“The pitch before (to Harper) I thought was a pretty good one and he took it,” Webb said. “The next one, I was just like, ‘Throw it a little bit higher.’ It was still on the bottom rail. The guy gets paid however many million to hit home runs and he did there. I thought I threw a good pitch, he’s just a very good baseball player.”
Webb wasn’t aided by his defense, which committed multiple errors for the second time in three games.
Webb was able to pitch around Michael Conforto’s misplay in left field, allowing a fly ball from Harper glance off his glove and fall to the ground while attempting an awkward basket catch, but couldn’t recover from Nick Ahmed’s throwing error in the second inning.
“If we play a little cleaner earlier in the game, maybe we’re not in that position later,” Melvin said.
Alec Bohm was allowed to reach base and take second to lead off the inning when Ahmed appeared to lose his footing and airmailed his throw well over the head of first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. The run only came around to score, however, when Webb shattered Edmundo Sosa’s bat with two outs.
The splinters of wood flew right back toward Webb, right along with the baseball, obscuring his view and preventing him from fielding the comebacker — at 48.6 mph, the second-softest piece of contact by either team. Thairo Estrada fielded it, tumbling to the grass, but his throw to first was too late, and Bohm had crossed the plate.
“I didn’t want to get hit with the bat,” Webb said. “So I kind of (moved to his right) and then I tried to reach back out and grab the ball (in the opposite direction). I should have made that. There were a couple plays I probably should have made today that I didn’t.”
Facing Taijuan Walker, who was tagged for six runs by the Padres in his only other start of the season, the Giants struggled to muster much besides a two-run shot to left field from Estrada that ended the starting pitcher’s evening after 6⅓ innings, five hits, three runs, one walk and seven strikeouts.
Four of Walker’s strikeouts came looking with Giants batters standing frozen while four fastballs went by for strike three. Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman fired another heater past a stationary Wilmer Flores for the fifth strikeout looking of the night.
“(Walker) throws a lot of breaking balls, a lot of splits,” Melvin explained. “Maybe he surprised us with a few heaters.”
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Michael Conforto doubled home LaMonte Wade Jr. in the first inning, opening a brief 1-0 advantage, and Jakson Reetz — who entered in the seventh inning for his first appearance with the team after being called up earlier in the day — finally got them past the three-run mark for the first time since April 23.
The 28-year-old journeyman launched the first home run of his major-league career to left field off lefty Jose Alvarado in the ninth, but it was only enough to pull the Giants within one run. Jung Hoo Lee flew out to end the game, with Jorge Soler left on the bench.
Melvin also left Soler on the bench with Wade up against another lefty, Gregory Soto, in the seventh.
The designated hitter was unavailable with a right shoulder issue, Melvin said afterward.
Up next
One current Giants pitching prospect, Mason Black, will make his major-league debut against Zack Wheeler (3-3, 1.91), perhaps the most successful pitcher to come out of San Francisco’s farm system in the past decade. Wheeler was 21 years old and in Single-A when he was traded for Carlos Beltran.
First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. PT.
