Webb still 'steady force' in Giants' rotation

ATLANTA -- After handling his business and keeping his team in the game, Giants starter Logan Webb walked into the clubhouse postgame with a shirt that read "good enough" with a picture of a dog sitting in a flame-engulfed room.

The shirt, based on a meme, was given to the pitchers on Monday. Webb said the shirt displayed the mantra for the entire pitching staff because the long, grueling 162-game season isn't always kind to the players on the mound.

Every person and every day can have its own definition of "good enough." The right-hander was superb through seven innings in the Giants’ 2-1 series-opening loss to the Braves at Truist Park.

The 25-year-old Webb gave up his first and only run on a second-inning homer to Travis d’Arnaud, but then he buckled down and continued to deal. When he exited, Webb had yielded six hits and no walks to go with seven strikeouts. Over his past two starts, he's allowed just one run through 14 innings.

"He's been an excellent Major Leaguer for several years now," manager Gabe Kapler said. "He's been a steady force in our rotation and a guy that we lean on every fifth day or every time through the rotation to be exactly what he was today."

It is no small task to face a Braves lineup that is coming off a recent 14-game win streak.

"To be honest, that's probably, aside from the Dodgers, the best lineup I've ever seen," Webb said.

As challenging as it may have been to navigate through Atlanta’s offense, this was Webb's ninth time in 14 starts that he reached six or more innings. Earlier in the season, after back-to-back quality starts, Webb had a string of games where he gave up three or more runs in consecutive outings.

"I threw a lot those first two games, and I think it kind of hit me after a short spring," Webb said.

Webb had to go back to the drawing board and work on his slight mechanical changes to be as effective as he was to start the season. But now, he's starting to get back into a groove.

"Once you get into a rhythm, it's fun to be out there, and it's back to pitching again," Webb said.

After the shortened spring, the Giants’ rotation is starting to adjust to their workload as a whole. After posting the second-worst ERA of any team last month (5.44 ERA), San Francisco starters entered Monday’s game with a 2.69 mark (45 earned runs in 150 1/3 innings) over the first 17 games in June, which was tied with the Braves for the second-lowest ERA behind the Rays (2.53). Giants starters entered the game second in MLB this month with a 2.41 ERA, behind only Boston (2.23).

Although the shirt was given to the players in the rotation, the motto can be used for the hitters as well. The saying goes along with how the Giants have preached getting the offense going early this season. But when that doesn't happen, like when it takes until the eighth to score, the team has pushed itself to battle back and do whatever it takes to win.

"We didn't have our best at-bats early in the game, but we did start to put together better at-bats," Kapler said. "I think we were one excellent at-bat away from winning this game.

"Every single win counts the same. There's an elevated level of intensity in this ballpark against this team. We saw that tonight."