The Logan Webb-Paul Skenes matchup didn't deliver, but SF Giants' unlikely rookies did

Logan Webb said after the San Francisco Giants' 13-12 roller-coaster loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates that he and Paul Skenes had become pretty good friends. Naturally, he wanted to compete against his new buddy, who won last year's National League Cy Young Award in unanimous fashion. On paper, it appeared like the kind of game in which no mistakes could be afforded. Entering Tuesday's series opener between the Giants and the Pirates, and since the start of the 2024 season, nobody in major-league baseball had put together more quality starts than Webb's 56, while Skenes' 2.53 ERA during that span was the second-lowest among qualified starting pitchers, trailing only Tarik Skubal's 2.48 mark.

Webb failed to make it through the third inning for the second time in his last three starts and allowed a career-high nine runs. The two teams combined for 25 runs on 35 hits. Though Skenes lasted a bit longer, he still surrendered five runs in fewer than five innings of action.

"Worst start of my career," Webb said postgame. "It's been just a bad year."

If you're wondering when the Giants last scored 12 runs in a game and still lost, according to Justice delos Santos of the San Jose Mercury News, it happened almost exactly 20 years ago in a 13-12 defeat against the Brewers.

Losses, no matter how painful they can be, haven't carried much weight for a while now. Silver linings, however, have, and the Giants provided a major one by climbing out of a six-run hole after a catastrophic third inning. Though the comeback was undone by a ninth-inning throwing error from second baseman Osleivis Basabe, it would not even have been thinkable if not for César Perdomo. The rookie tossed four innings of one-run ball in his major-league debut and kept his team in the game. The 24-year-old was still pitching in Eugene as recently as last year, so outperforming two of the best pitchers in baseball in his big-league debut will be a pretty good story to tell his kids and grandkids.

A lot has changed since the SF Giants' last meeting with Skenes

The two aces, Team USA's 1-2 rotation punch during the World Baseball Classic, spent a lot of time together back in March. The Stars and Stripes won all four of Webb and Skenes' starts during the competition, as they combined to allow just two runs over 17 total innings. Skenes also picked up a win in Team USA's 15-1 rout over the Giants as part of an exhibition game. A lot has changed between that March encounter and Tuesday's unexpected slugfest. Only four of the 18 Giants players who took at least one at-bat in that tune-up game in Scottsdale took one against Skenes in Pittsburgh.

Not only did Skenes face a very different group of hitters, he also took on players with changed roles. Bryce Eldridge went from a promising slugger facing a top-tier ace to a cornerstone of the Giants organization. In his first significant stint in the majors, he's fought through a midseason slump and has posted a .963 OPS since I wrote about that prolonged funk.

Turner Hill, Jonah Cox, and Drew Cavanaugh, three of the major contributors to the Giants' ultimately meaningless six-run rally, didn't even appear in that exhibition game and barely played in spring training. Each of those three players kicked off the year down in Double-A Richmond and wasn't expected to contribute much, if at all, this season, let alone compete for a spot on the 2027 roster. Now, they all have a legitimate shot at making next season's Opening Day roster in specific roles.

Turner Hill's bat-to-ball skills and plate discipline in the minors (he posted a .353 batting average and drew more walks than he struck out in 88 games in Sacramento) have both translated at the major-league level so far. The sample size is still very small, just 14 games, but the 27-year-old outfielder has all the tools to be a major boost in a bench or platoon role as soon as next season. The Giants have a lot of talent in the outfield. The battles next spring for the spots left vacant by Heliot Ramos and Harrison Bader (assuming he won't be in San Francisco next year) should be very exciting to follow.

Another serious candidate for one of those spots is Jonah Cox, who made the jump straight from Richmond earlier this season. His combination of speed, defense, and power meets all the requirements of a valuable fourth outfielder. But striking out over 44% of the time offsets a lot of those positive attributes. He's not the only one in that situation. Grant McCray has a similar toolbox but has also struggled with strikeouts throughout his major-league career (though his 29% strikeout rate this season has been encouraging). Cox doesn't have McCray's experience. Though he's appeared in just 48 fewest games in the big leagues, Cox has taken just 47 Triple-A at-bats (McCray has taken 837).

Though rookie catcher Drew Cavanaugh still hasn't recorded his first major-league home run, he has shown enough both offensively and behind the plate to earn consideration for next year's backup job. The race should be wide open. Daniel Susac is expected to be the No. 1 starter and the Giants could still elect to go with three catchers and use Jesus Rodriguez, who's been on the injured list since August 1, as a super-utility guy. Cavanaugh wasn't even a formal major-league camp invitee this spring, and now he's in line to possibly earn a spot on a major-league roster. That's the underlying beauty of losing baseball.

The Giants came into the season with winning expectations. Shedding that ".500 team" reputation was one of their main goals. With just 23 games left on the schedule, the Giants will officially record their fifth consecutive non-winning season. Now, just as the roster looks unrecognizable compared to the group that took on the New York Yankees in late March, the goals have also changed. The team needs at least six wins over those final 23 games to avoid becoming just the second team in the San Francisco era and the first in 41 years to finish a season with 100 losses. They eventually did shed that reputation, just not in the right direction.

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