SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants are no longer reeling. In fact, you could even say they enter the All-Star break on a roll.
With a 9-5 win Sunday afternoon, the Giants took three of four games from the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, ending the first half of the season with seven wins in their final nine games, after preceding this stretch by dropping 14 of 18.
Logan Webb, who started the season with six innings of one-run ball on Opening Day, finished the first half with six more strong innings. A first-inning home run from Willy Adames amounted to the Brewers’ only damage off Webb, before he handed the game off to Jakob Junis, who allowed one inherited runner and three more to score in his first appearance since straining his hamstring last month.
A splash hit from LaMonte Wade Jr. provided the final three runs of a five-run third inning that blew the game open, after the Giants had scratched across one run apiece in the first two frames. Brandon Belt came just short of McCovey Cove with a two-run shot of his own in the sixth that extended San Francisco’s lead to 9-1.
Despite lowering his ERA to 2.75 in his 19th and final start of the first half, Webb plans to spend the All-Star break relaxing at Lake Tahoe instead of Dodger Stadium after he was left off the National League roster.
Before Sunday’s first-half finale, manager Gabe Kapler downplayed the importance of putting their recent skid fully in the rearview mirror before the All-Star break. “A good stretch of play and results is welcome anytime,” he said.
That stretch, it so happens, has come in the club’s final nine games before the midseason intermission. The mood in the clubhouse Sunday morning was noticeably jovial, with players cracking jokes as they packed for their All-Star break destinations. That is a product of the seven wins they have reeled off in those final nine games.
The Giants, who fell all the way back to .500 and as far as 3.0 games out of playoff position while dropping 14 of 18 games from June 19-July 8, suddenly enter the break five games above water and one game back of the Phillies for the second wild card spot. These Giants (48-43) are 10.0 games off last year’s pace (58-33) after 91 games.
Carlos Rodón started this resurgence last week in San Diego by going the distance in a 3-1 win (the same day a pregame home run derby also helped lighten the team’s spirits). Alex Wood followed that with seven shutout innings, and San Francisco hasn’t had a starter allow more than three earned runs since.
The Giants began this season by setting a franchise record with nine straight starts of two runs or fewer, kicked off by Webb on Opening Day. On Sunday, Webb put a bow on a run of nine straight starts of three earned runs or less that, paired with timely hitting and cleaner defense, allowed the Giants to end the first half with playoff hopes still intact.
Notable
— Tommy La Stella‘s time on the COVID IL will expire over the All-Star break. Rather than join the club in Los Angeles for the first series of the second half, La Stella is expected to go on a rehab assignment and meet the team in Arizona, instead, Kapler said. La Stella hasn’t played since July 7. The team has declined to share his test results, citing La Stella’s personal refusal to do so.
