SAN FRANCISCO — If the Nationals’ offensive onslaught Friday night came as a surprise, their hit parade found an even more unlikely master of ceremonies on Saturday in Logan Webb.
Webb allowed the most hits of his career but mostly scattered them over six innings and gave the Giants enough to snap their losing streak at two games, even with their starting lineup decimated by injuries and COVID-19.
The Giants rolled out another patchwork starting nine Saturday but they pieced together their third-best offensive output of the season with clutch runs driven in by Thairo Estrada and a sixth-inning splash hit from Jason Vosler to provide insurance and a cherry on top of the 9-3 win.
Vosler’s solo shot into McCovey Cove — his second homer in as many days — kicked off a four-run sixth inning that blew the game open after Webb exited holding a slim 4-3 lead. Brandon Crawford scored the final of four runs in the frame after Estrada forced a throwing error from shortstop Alcides Escobar in the second bang-bang play Estrada forced at first base.
The Giants loaded the bases in back-to-back innings in the fifth and sixth.
They were at risk of blowing their first bases-loaded opportunity when Estrada hit a ground ball to Escobar with one out in the fifth. He flipped for the out at second, but Estrada beat the throw to first base, nixing the double play and extending the inning. Pinch-hitter Mauricio Dubon singled in the next at-bat to drive home Darin Ruf for the second run of the inning, which gave the Giants a 4-2 lead.
Estrada drove home the Giants’ first two runs of the day, too, with a two-out double into the left-center field gap that brought home Crawford and Wilmer Flores after they reached via hit-by-pitch and bases on balls. With three more RBIs Saturday, Estrada increased his team-leading total to 14.
Flores didn’t record a hit but reached base in his each of his first three trips to the plate — walking twice and getting hit by pitch — making Saturday the 11th time in his past 12 games that he has reached base safely, raising his OPS over that stretch by more than 100 points, to .797, the third-highest mark among the club’s regulars (Joc Pederson: 1.127; Brandon Belt: .837).
Seven different players scored for the Giants, including Crawford and leadoff man Luis Gonzalez twice, while four players drove in runs, led by Estrada’s three-RBI game.
The team effort offensively stood in contrast to their loss Friday night, when homers by Vosler and Joey Bart accounted for three of their four runs in a 14-4 loss. The Nationals recorded more hits in that game (22) than all but four other Giants opponents since the turn of the millennium, and they were right back at it Saturday.
Washington’s 11 hits off Webb in six innings were the most the young starter has allowed in an outing in his career (and only the 11th time since 2000 that the Giants have allowed 33+ hits in two games). But like his only other time allowing nine hits, last September against Colorado, when Webb completed seven innings and still earned the win, he pitched around the damage to complete six innings while limiting the Nationals to three runs.
The Giants have now won 16 straight starts made by Webb at Oracle Park, dating back to Sept. 8, 2020, the longest active home winning streak for a pitcher in the majors.
The Nationals got runners on base in all but one inning against Webb but managed to bring them across the plate in only two frames.
Webb pitched around a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning, aided by a heads-up double play by Crawford, who was playing on the edge of the infield grass and stepped back to tag second then fired to first for a 6-3 double play that ended the inning. And he erased a two-out double by Josh Bell in the first inning and a leadoff single by Yadiel Hernandez in the second, but ran into trouble in the third and the sixth.
Webb allowed the leadoff man to reach each time — walking Victor Robles to begin the second and allowing a Hernandez double to start the sixth — and each time, he came around to score.
Once Webb turned the game over the bullpen in the seventh inning, the Nationals didn’t muster another hit.
With the win Saturday, the Giants clinched the season series with the Nationals, whom they won’t face again after Sunday. The Giants go for their fifth series win of the season in Sunday’s finale with right-hander Alex Cobb on the mound, making his first start since suffering a mild groin strain last week.
