Wed May 15 8:47am ET
Field Level Media
Logan Webb will attempt to avoid matching his career-worst losing streak when he and the San Francisco Giants look for a way to quiet the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers in the finale of a three-game series Wednesday night.
The Dodgers followed up a 6-4 win in 10 innings in the series opener with a 10-2 shellacking in the rematch, giving them five straight victories against their National League West rival this season.
Webb (3-4, 3.38 ERA) pitched the second of those five losses, April 2 at Los Angeles, when he was roughed up for five runs and seven hits, including a Mookie Betts home run, in 3 2/3 innings in a 5-4 defeat.
Webb has gone 3-6 with a 4.41 ERA in 13 career starts against the Dodgers.
The 2023 National League Cy Young Award runner-up, Webb rebounded from the Dodgers debacle to start four consecutive Giants wins. But he since has experienced hard times, losing three straight decisions and allowing 12 runs (10 earned) in 14 2/3 innings in those outings.
Webb had a four-game losing streak bridging last March and April, a stretch that included a 9-1 drubbing at home at the hands of the Dodgers.
Webb was encouraged by his most recent outing, one in which he allowed just two earned runs (three total) in a 4-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds to open the current homestand. Two of the runs he allowed were the direct result of Elly De La Cruz stolen bases.
"It was definitely a step in the right direction, but still not good enough," Webb said after leaving a 3-2 game headed into the eighth. "It was kind of a tale of two games. Early on, not very good. I figured it out late, but by then it was too late. Just got to be better."
Especially against the Dodgers, who banged out 13 hits against three Giants pitchers in Tuesday's win. Nine of the hits went for extra bases, including a double and a home run by Shohei Ohtani, and triples by Betts, Teoscar Hernandez and Gavin Lux.
Betts, Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith got on base a total of 10 times, setting the table for two run-producing hits from Hernandez -- an RBI double in a four-run fourth and a two-RBI triple in a four-run ninth.
Hernandez, an offseason free-agent signing after he played just one season in Seattle, ranks third in the majors in RBIs with a team-leading 36.
Able to rest their key relievers in Tuesday's blowout win, the Dodgers are scheduled to use the series finale as a bullpen game. That will allow Tyler Glasnow to get a fifth day of rest before opening a four-game series against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.
"It's a no-brainer. There's nothing more important than protecting the starters," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Added pitching coach Mark Prior: "We feel really good with our bullpen games. We've done it enough that I think we can isolate the matchups we want the best we can."
The Dodgers have not announced which reliever will take on the role of opener on Wednesday.
Los Angeles Dodgers | |
San Francisco Giants |
Wed May 15 9:45pm ET
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