Webb, Joc making strong All-Star cases

SAN FRANCISCO -- Logan Webb established himself as one of the best young starters in the National League following his breakout campaign for the Giants last year. Could the next step for the 25-year-old right-hander be a trip to his first career All-Star Game? He certainly seems to be putting himself in the conversation.

Webb allowed only one unearned run over six innings as the Giants snapped a three-game skid with a 9-2 win over the Reds on Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park. Evan Longoria, Thairo Estrada, Joc Pederson and Wilmer Flores each homered to back Webb, who improved to 7-2 with a 3.04 ERA over 15 starts this year.

The wide margin of victory was certainly a welcome change for the Giants, whose previous 10 games had been decided by two or fewer runs. Longoria, Estrada and Pederson launched solo shots to stake San Francisco to a 6-1 lead before Flores broke the game open with a three-run blast in the sixth.

“That’s the team that we are,” Webb said. “That’s the team that we expect to show up every single night.”

Webb gave up only two singles while walking two and striking out six to continue his remarkable dominance at Oracle Park, where the Giants have won 22 of his 28 career home starts. Entering Saturday, that mark ranked as the fifth-best winning percentage by any pitcher with at least 20 home starts in the modern era.

“He's really good,” Reds manager David Bell said of Webb. “He's got really good movement. Good sinker, slider and changeup. He really had it all working and made for some tough at-bats today, for sure."

Over his last four outings, Webb has yielded only three earned runs over 25 2/3 innings (1.05 ERA) while registering 25 strikeouts. He seems to be hitting his stride at the right time, especially with less than a month to go until the 2022 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium on July 19.

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Pederson was the lone Giants position player to be among the leading NL vote-getters in the first All-Star ballot update last week, and he continued to burnish his case by crushing his team-leading 17th home run of the year -- and his second off a lefty -- against Reds veteran Mike Minor in the fifth.

Pitchers are not eligible for fan voting, but they can be added via player vote or selected by MLB. Webb appears well positioned to garner consideration, along with left-hander Carlos Rodón, who has a 2.70 ERA over 14 starts for the Giants this year.

“We’ve talked about Carlos a little bit, and he’s very deserving,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “And, of course, Joc. But if Logan keeps pitching like this, it’s going to be hard to deny him as well. He’s very deserving of consideration.”

The Reds scored their only run off Webb in the second, when Mike Moustakas drew a two-out walk and advanced to second on an error by Longoria, who couldn’t handle a hard-hit grounder off the bat of Albert Almora Jr. Nick Senzel followed with an RBI single to right field to give Cincinnati a 1-0 lead.

“The second inning was a bit of a hiccup,” Kapler said. “I think without the Moustakas walk, he might save himself 15 pitches. He might end up one or maybe even one-plus more in that game. I think that’s one that he would like to have back. That probably changes the game a little bit. But independent of that, I thought he pitched an excellent ballgame.”

The Reds also threatened in the fourth, putting runners on the corners with one out, but Webb managed to extricate himself from the jam by fielding a comebacker from Almora and throwing to second to start a 1-4-3 inning-ending double play.

Webb said he believes the key to his success over the last few weeks has been finding a balanced pitch mix that features all three of his offerings -- sinker, slider and changeup -- rather than being overly reliant on a single weapon.

“I think it goes back to everything we kind of said last year,” Webb said. “It’s just attacking with all my pitches. Not throwing too many of the same pitch. Trying to find that rhythm and that consistency of mixing up all my pitches and throwing them all for strikes. I think I’ve done a lot better with that the last couple of outings than I was at the beginning. Hopefully I can keep building off that.”

Webb said an All-Star bid isn’t really on his radar at the moment, but if he keeps rolling, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bound for Los Angeles next month.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Webb said. “Obviously, it would be an honor. But we’ll see. I wouldn’t mind three days at Lake Tahoe or something, either.”