Webb, Giants stymied again by powerful Braves

SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants right-hander Logan Webb hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his first 12 home starts this season, but he couldn’t keep that streak going against the top offense in MLB.

Webb gave up five runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings, and the Giants’ bats were overmatched by All-Star right-hander Spencer Strider, culminating in a 5-1 series-opening loss to the MLB-best Braves on Friday night at Oracle Park.

Strider edged Webb by punching out nine over seven innings of one-run ball, handing the Giants their 13th loss in their last 18 games. At 66-62, San Francisco now sits one game behind the Cubs for the third and final National League Wild Card spot with 34 games left to play.

Strider, who leads the Majors with 236 strikeouts this year, kept the Giants off the board until Joc Pederson tripled and scored on J.D. Davis’ RBI groundout in the seventh. The results weren’t much better from the Giants’ previous matchup with Strider at Atlanta last week, when they mustered only one hit and struck out 10 times over seven scoreless innings.

“I think he gives everybody trouble,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He definitely has been pretty good against us. This was an excellent outing for him. He had a lot of carry on his fastball. Our guys were on time to the fastball. We just weren’t fully squaring a couple of deeper fly balls and some balls just off the barrel. But it’s not enough. When you’re facing the best pitchers in baseball, you’ve got to connect a couple of times or it’s going to be really hard to string hits together and scratch runs across, as we saw today.”

Webb entered Friday with a 2.11 ERA at Oracle Park this year, but he wasn’t as dominant while making his second consecutive start against the Braves. His outing began on a rather ominous note, with Michael Harris II blasting Webb's sixth pitch of the game -- an up-and-in sinker -- over the right-field wall for a solo home run that gave Atlanta a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning.

“It’s a good lineup, and I didn’t execute,” Webb said. “I just think they beat me today. It’s as simple as that. Nothing really else to say other than that.”

Harris continued to cause trouble in the fourth, when he led off with a single, stole second and scored on Matt Olson’s RBI double, which came off a changeup that was below the zone. Marcell Ozuna followed with a single to right field, plating Olson and extending Atlanta’s lead to 3-0.

“Interestingly, there were a lot of balls below the zone that these Braves hitters went down and got up underneath and drove into the outfield for hits,” Kapler said. “I don’t think this was Logan’s best outing. This is one of those times when you’re like this is one of the best lineups anywhere. These guys are just excellent, excellent athletes in the box. They beat us today.”

Webb came back to post a 1-2-3 fifth, but he needed 14 pitches to retire Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who fouled off five consecutive two-strike pitches before finally grounding out to new shortstop Paul DeJong for the first out of the inning.

“After he got out, he kind of looked at me and smiled,” Webb said. “We both smiled at each other. He’s a good dude. It’s always fun battling against him.”

“He’s tough, man,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I said that the other day when he pitched against us. He’s a horse. His stuff is really good. He’s got a great assortment. The at-bat Travis had off him was something else. We had some really good at-bats against him.”

Atlanta knocked Webb out in the sixth after Ronald Acuña Jr. tripled and scored on an RBI single by Harris. The Braves added another run on Olson’s sacrifice fly off left-hander Alex Wood, who covered the final 3 2/3 innings for San Francisco.

The Giants fell to 13-14 in Webb’s starts this year, which is largely the result of their inability to provide consistent run support for their homegrown ace. He entered Friday with a 3.30 run support average, the second-lowest mark in the Majors behind former Giants rotation mate Kevin Gausman (3.23), who is currently pitching for the Blue Jays.