SAN FRANCISCO — After being held in check for the early innings of the first two games of their series against the Astros, the Giants jumped on arguably their toughest pitching matchup of the week Wednesday afternoon and put their second straight series win on ice before their starter, Logan Webb, had broken a sweat.
Behind Webb’s league-leading 11th quality start of the season, the five runs surrendered between the third and fourth innings by his sinkerballing counterpart, Framber Valdez, stood up to send the Giants into their off day on a positive note, 5-3.
They will have a chance to even their record to .500 when they host the Los Angeles Angels on Friday to begin a three-game series.
Lining a knee-high sinker into right field, Austin Slater notched his third hit of the afternoon and drove home Jorge Soler and Brett Wisely for the Giants’ first two runs of the fourth inning, and they would tack on another to make it 5-1 after four and send the Astros’ ace to his earliest exit of the season.
Slater was stranded on first after singling to lead off the home half of the first inning but came around to score after bunting his way on base in the third and drove home a pair with his third hit. In four games since returning from a concussion, Slater has recorded more hits (six) than he had in 25 games before landing on the injured list.
Batting from the nine-hole, Mike Yastrzemski reached base in both his trips to the plate against the southpaw and scored both times. He lined a single to lead off the two-run third inning and was struck in the bill of his helmet his second time up, making it to third on Slater’s two-RBI single and scoring the final run of the inning on Heliot Ramos’ sacrifice fly to center.
The Giants had scored a total of two runs in the first nine innings of the first two games of the series. They were held to one run by Monday’s starter, 24-year-old rookie Spencer Arrighetti, before rally for three runs and a walkoff win in the bottom of the 10th and mustered just three hits in Tuesday’s 3-1 loss.
Entering play Wednesday, they had scored 108 runs in the first four innings this season, sixth-fewest in MLB, compared to 164 in the fifth inning onward, ninth-most.
Valdez, meanwhile, had tossed 16 innings over his previous two starts while limiting opponents to one run apiece.
The pitching matchup pitted two of the majors’ top workhorses and ground-ball pitchers against each other. Since the start of 2021, no other hurlers have ended a larger share of their at-bats on the ground than Webb and Valdez, and only Zack Wheeler and Sandy Alcántara have completed seven innings as frequently.
Both starting pitchers were out of the game by the end of the sixth, as manager Bob Melvin asked only 83 pitches out of Webb before handing the keys over to his bullpen. It was the fewest pitches Webb has thrown in a start this season and only the third time in his past seven starts he hasn’t gone seven.
Even Webb wasn’t able to keep Yordan Alvarez, the Astros’ hulking left fielder, on the ground.
The brick wall in Triples Alley was the only obstacle standing in the way of a two-homer game from the 6-foot-5 slugger, who sent a 109.3 mph missile screaming for a double in the fourth inning and refused to be contained the next chance he got against Webb, whacking a sinker below his knees beyond the 399′ sign in left-center field for a two-run shot, contributing to all three runs on Webb’s pitching line.
Notable
LHP Blake Snell (groin) threw 20 pitches in a pregame bullpen session that went well. It was Snell’s first time pitching off a mound since re-injuring the adductor muscle in his groin earlier this month, and the Giants plan to get him at least one more before considering a rehab assignment.
Up next
The Giants (33-35) are off Thursday before resuming their slate of American League West opponents with three games against the Los Angeles Angels (25-41) to finish their home stand. They will use the day off — their first at home since May 30 — to give their starters an extra day of rest, lining up right-handers Spencer Howard (0-0, 2.03) and Keaton Winn (3-7, 6.94) to start the first two games and lefty Kyle Harrison (4-3, 3.96) in the finale.