Dominant Webb and home run barrage rout D-Backs, 11-0

The Giants hit five home runs and Logan Webb pitched six shutout innings Tuesday in a blowout win in Phoenix. Getting eliminated has made this team invincible.

What do you get your baseball team’s ace to celebrate his last start of the season? For the San Francisco Giants, they opted for a rare treat that Logan Webb always needs but rarely has enough of: Run support.

Webb threw six scoreless innings and the Giants hit five home runs in an 11-0 rout of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was the team’s fifth win in a row and Webb’s 13th win on the season. This was Webb’s last start of the season, barring an unlikely ruling from Major League Baseball banning the Dodgers from the playoffs for competitive balance tax evasion. He finishes the season with a 13-10 record, a 3.47 ERA, and 174 strikeouts in 204.2 innings.

It’s the Giants’ first back-to-back 200-inning pitching seasons since Jeff Samradzija in 2016-17. For the record, Webb pitched only 192.1 innings in 2022. Showing his incredible consistency, Webb gave up exactly 83 runs for the second straight year, though an additional one of those runs was earned this season.

Patrick Bailey got the Giants on the board early with his first home run since July 10. It was a different time back on July 10. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were still married. Audiences had fallen in love with “Despicable Me 4.” “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey was the No. 1 song in America.

Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt threw a belt-high 95 MPH fastball to Bailey and he sent it 422 feet into the right-field seats for his 8th home run of the season, and first since the end of Brat Summer.

Talk about a pfaadt pitch!

It almost turned into a huge inning when Mike Yastrzemski almost put an exclamation point on his “contract drive” that was bound for the right field pool before Corbin Carroll saved a three-run homer with some well-timed glove work.

In the third, LaMonte Wade, Jr. continued the Giants’ series-long torment of Jake McCarthy, who once again just missed a spectacular catch, but gave up an extra-base hit and crashed into a wall instead. Monday night, it was a triple and inside-the-park homer from Matt Chapman, while Tuesday it was a double that sent Heliot Ramos to third.

That set up Michael Conforto, who hit a three-run bomb for his 20th home run of the season. It’s the first time in five seasons Conforto reached the 20-homer mark, and it’s his fourth home run in his last six games, this one going 430 feet.

After Patrick Bailey walked and Tyler Fitzgerald nearly beat out a grounder to short, D-Backs manager Torey Lovullo decided to cut the Pfaadt, replacing him with Blake Walston. This time, shortstop Geraldo Perdomo couldn’t handle Grant McCray’s grounder, giving the Giants first-and-third for Brett Wisely. That opened the door for the Giants’ second three-run homer of the third inning, as Wisely blasted one 394 feet to center. Somewhere, Earl Weaver is weeping with pride.

Wisely hadn’t hit a home run since June 28. It was a different time back on June 28. Offset and Cardi B. were still married. Audiences had fallen in love with “A Quiet Place: Day One.” “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey was the No. 3 song in America.

It didn’t get any easier for Walston. Heliot Ramos led off the 4th inning with a 426-foot bomb, as Walston helplessly peered into the dugout, knowing that there was no relief coming. With the Giants up 8-0 and the Atlanta Braves breathing down the D-Backs’ collective necks for the last wild-card spot, Walston had to miserably eat innings like one of Joey Chestnut’s hot-dog-eating competitors.

In the fifth inning, it was Tyler Fitzgerald’s turn to go deep off Walston, launching a 408-foot two-run homer to left. That was Fitzgerald’s 15th home run of the season and his first since August 14. It was a different time back on June 28. Laura Loomer was still allowed on Donald Trump’s plane. Audiences had fallen in love with “Deadpool & Wolverine.” “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey was the No. 1 song in America.

It doesn’t seem to matter who comes out of the Giants’ suddenly unhittable bullpen anymore. Tuesday, it was Tristan Beck throwing a scoreless 7th before Austin Warren closed it out with two scoreless innings.

Eight of the Giants’ starters collected a hit, aside from Matt Chapman. But Chapman’s replacement, Casey Schmitt, drew a bases-loaded walk in the 8th to bring in the Giants’ 11th and final run. It was Schmitt’s fourth walk of the season, and his first since September 18.

It was a different time back on September 18. The Giants still hadn’t been eliminated from the playoffs. Audiences were falling in love with Michael Conforto’s late-season surge. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey was the No. 1 song in America.

Tyler Fitzgerald just missed his second home run of the game in the ninth, but his drive off the top of the wall ended up his 18th double of the season. Even after his power slump, Fitzgerald is still lsugging .510 on the season.

Heliot Ramos went 4-for-5 and scored two runs. Patrick Bailey was 2-for-4 and scored three times. Wade had a double and walked twice. It was an incredible offensive night behind Webb. Of course, it came in a game where he only needed one of those dingers.

The eliminated Giants are now the hottest team in baseball. On a night where Farhan Zaidi was forced to anounce to reporters that ownership was “evaluating…me” before the game, the team he put together won their fifth straight game and their 7th in 8 games against playoff teams. If his job truly is still being evaluated, and he was not simply warming the media up for his eventual dismissal, Zaidi couldn’t have picked a better time for the Giants to learn how to hit three-run homers again.

Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey.