Logan Webb shuts down panic button talk with resilient (but shaky) SF Giants start

After SF Giants ace Logan Webb got shelled in his first outing of the regular season against the New York Yankees, it was easy to dismiss it as one bad start. While Webb looked shaky early on against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, he battled back and delivered a resilient outing.

Webb pitched six innings and allowed three earned runs. He had to pitch through quite a bit of traffic as he allowed three hits and four walks, but he finished really strong in his final two innings of work as he struck out Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Jackson Merrill in the fifth inning. He somewhat surprisingly came out for the sixth inning and induced three ground balls to finish his night.

SF Giants ace Logan Webb battles back after rough start

The Merrill strikeout in particular to end the fifth was huge because Merrill has had Webb's number, recording 10 hits in 14 career at-bats against Webb including an RBI single on Tuesday night.

The most concerning thing was the fact that Webb really seemed to struggle finding the strike zone for much of the night. He was behind in the count a lot and those four walks are alarming since Webb is usually a guy who fills up the strike zone.

Yet, he did what an ace does and battled through the game even though he clearly did not have his best stuff. He gave the Giants a chance to win and left the game with his team ahead thanks to some uncharacteristic run support so he did his job.

There is still cause for mild concern, though. Right now it just seems like his mechanics are a little out of whack. We have seen him go through stretches like this before. Usually they occur in the middle of the season after the All-Star break, but he has had rough starts to the season in the past as well.

Back in 2023 Webb allowed eight earned runs across his first two starts of the season. In 2024 he allowed seven earned runs in his first two starts. Webb has allowed nine earned runs through his first two starts this season, but that first start against the Yankees was just odd given all of the Netflix theatrics and the weird start time.

Some will blame Webb's participation in the World Baseball Classic for his less-than-ideal start to the season, and the fact that other WBC pitchers for Team USA had a rough start as well has only fueled that speculation, but he will probably be fine over the course of a long season.

After the three-run third inning, many fans probably had their fingers firmly placed on the panic button but Webb calmed everyone's nerves by the end of the night.