LOS ANGELES -- A year ago, with Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy on the other side one night, Logan Webb mixed it up. The Giants ace started throwing a cutter in a start at Oracle Park, and he got more and more comfortable with it as the season went on.
Webb kept working on the pitch this spring, hoping to provide a different look for the game's best left-handed hitters, who had started to dive out over the plate and hunt his sinker and changeup. He threw 13 of them at the Cincinnati Reds on Opening Day and 14 a few weeks later at Yankee Stadium.
On Friday night, he threw 29 cutters.
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SIGN UP HERE "They've got some guys with 30 and 40 at-bats against him," manager Bob Melvin said of Webb and the Los Angeles Dodgers. "Guys that know him really well, know how they want to attack him, have had some success off of him. And now all of a sudden, you're seeing two completely different pitches and the ability to pitch inside more. There were different swings from them today, and that's just how you get better as you go along -- you come up with some new wrinkles.
"Within the division, we have so many guys, including Webby and Tyler [Rogers], that have faced these guys a lot, and teams know how to game plan. To be able to do things differently like that is a credit to a guy trying to get better."
Webb did the same thing earlier this month against the San Diego Padres, throwing 41 sliders, his most since 2022, to give them a different look. In the two games against division rivals this month, he has allowed just eight hits and two runs over 14 innings.
"I wish I could just throw four-seamers and get it by guys, but I can't do that," Webb said. "I'm just trying to find new ways to get very good hitters out. That was kind of the game plan today."
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Webb got 22 strikes with the 29 cutters. He threw all five of his pitches at least 10 percent of the time, including the four-seamer that he adores. That pitch hit 95 mph, as did his sinker, which has become a theme this month. Webb had one pitch at 95-plus going into June but has thrown six against the Atlanta Braves and Dodgers in his past two starts.
"I'm feeling good," he said. "I feel like the mechanics are good right now. I'm not really going out there and trying to do too much. Weirdly, I feel like every season I feel like I start to throw a little harder as the season goes on."
Webb said he has a competition going with some other Giants pitchers about who can throw the hardest pitch. Of course, Hayden Birdsong and Justin Verlander aren't allowed in it.
"I am in the lead with these certain guys," he said, smiling.
On The Board
Webb credited catcher Andrew Knizner with helping to formulate the game plan and get through the lineup three times. They had never worked together before -- not even in a bullpen session -- but it looked natural.
Knizner also picked up his first Giants hit and homer on the same odd play. He homered to center in the eighth, but initially there was confusion about whether the ball had gone out or hit the top of the center field wall. It was Knizner's first hit in 15 at-bats in orange and black, and it came an inning after Webb got tagged by Teoscar Hernandez.
"I told him he waited too long and he said that because I gave up the homer, he had to get the run back," Webb said.
The Real Willy?
Willy Adames hit two homers at Coors Field, including his longest blast since 2019. Before Friday's game, Melvin insisted it wasn't just a thin-air thing. Adames then went out and hit a solo shot in the top of the first.
Adames has five hits, six runs and six RBI in four games since Matt Chapman went on the IL. Obviously, it would have been ideal for the two to form a one-two punch. But right now, the offensive jolt is desperately needed, and the Giants will need him to keep it going since Chapman might not return until the middle of July.
"The swing looks a lot smoother," Melvin said. "He's not trying to force anything. He hit the ball the other way out of the ballpark here at night; we saw him go to center field a couple of times in Colorado. It just looks like there's way less tension in his swing and we're seeing the results."