SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It wasn’t even three weeks ago that Logan Webb and Marcus Stroman were going back and forth on Twitter about the possibility of organizing their own exhibitions here in Arizona. Anything to play competitive baseball amid a lockout that showed no signs of ending anytime soon.
At 7:05 p.m. Friday night, Webb threw the first pitch of the Giants’ condensed Cactus League slate. Eight minutes later, after a 1-2-3 top half with two punchouts, Stroman fired his first pitch to Mike Yastrzemski. It took a little longer than they had hoped, but the two respective staff aces got what they wanted in its fullest, truest form. When players were locked out for 99 days and this first spring training game delayed by 10 days, the big news Friday was that they were playing baseball, at last.
“It’s honestly perfect,” Webb said. “I was a little nervous out there. It was good to get that feeling again. I was sitting in the dugout before and there’s this feeling you get in your chest. I can’t really explain it. I tried to take it all in and get that feeling again.”
On the opening night of Cactus League play — an eventual 7-3 loss to the Cubs — Webb’s repertoire looked ready for Opening Day. He started his two innings of work by getting Nico Hoerner swinging on a change low and away and ended his outing by with a his fifth punchout, freezing Greg Deichmann on a slider that just crossed the inside corner of the plate.
Spectators streamed through the gates two hours before first pitch, securing their spots on the outfield berm. Masses were lined up outside the home plate gate as Webb fired the first pitch. Strike one. A sinker. Scottsdale Stadium holds about 12,000 fans — official attendance Friday night was 10,042 — but Webb said it felt like he was pitching in front of 30,000 Friday night.
In two innings of work, Webb struck out five and surrendered only a lone baserunner, a free pass to Clint Frazier. Afterward, he said he felt like he could have gone three innings. Three or four more of these, he said, and he’ll be ready for Opening Day.
The only time he didn’t look the part came during a brief stretch at the start of the second inning, when he lost all control, threw a pitch behind a Cubs batter and let Frazier steal second base.
“That was one of the first things they said afterward, like ‘Hey, next bullpen let’s work on that,” Webb said.
He started the game with a sinker. He rung up four batters with his out pitch, the changeup. And he proudly walked off the mound after recording his final strikeout with his slider, the weak link of his repertoire that he’s been honing in bullpens this spring.
“There were a couple today that felt really good,” Webb said, including that final offering, on his 30th pitch of the night.
Prior to first pitch, Webb spotted Stroman from his spot in center field where he was warming up, smiled and tipped his cap. Stroman returned the gesture and jogged over, embracing the player who, in the span of 16 days, went from teammate at the bargaining table to opponent on the field.
On March 2, Webb sent out a tweet that caught the attention of a couple players, including Stroman. Like many of his peers, Webb was in Arizona but locked out of his team’s facilities, unable to organize more than glorified bullpen sessions. “Need to get some sim games going here in AZ,” Webb wrote. Stroman was game, just out of town.
Tonight's starting pitchers pic.twitter.com/c7SWYYbqdq
— Evan Webeck (@EvanWebeck) March 19, 2022
The lockout ended less than a week later, so no sim games materialized. But the interaction was the birth of a bond between two hurlers with similar styles — one an established All-Star and among the most coveted arms of this free agent class, the other one whose lights-out finish to last season elevated him into the same echelon of respect.
“Us sinker ballers have to stick together,” said Webb, who went 10-0 with a 2.40 ERA in his final 20 starts and was right back in form Friday night. “He’s a good dude. … We said we were going to say hi to each other before the game, so I just kind of tipped my cap and said what’s up. … It was cool to meet him and finally talk to him.”
In a separate exchange shortly after the lockout lifted, Stroman replied to a video of Webb’s home run last season by saying, “This guy is my idol!” and told Webb to, “Go be great, young king!”
“My guy, let’s get it this year” replied Webb, who said Friday he was studying Stroman’s back-door two-seamer.
When it actually came time to throw the first pitch, Webb was left guessing — no fault of batterymate Joey Bart.
Bart flashed the sign between his legs, but with one of two night-time starts this spring, Webb was totally blind to his catcher’s fingers.
“He put down the first sign of the night and I was like, I cannot see that. I think it’s a sinker. Chances are it’s a sinker,” Webb said.
Good guess.
“I told him, ‘Dude, you’ve got to open up your legs or something,'” Webb said with a laugh. “Then he put some nail stuff on, so it was better to see that second inning.”
Notable
- It took until the eighth inning for the Giants to record their first hit, a double off the bat of Bryce Johnson (a sixth-round draft pick in 2017), who also scored San Francisco’s only run, coming home on an RBI single from Diego Rincones (a 2015 international signee).
- Catcher Brett Auerbach, who the Giants signed as an undrafted free agent after the five-round amateur draft in 2020, knocked in San Francisco’s second run with a hard-hit triple to left-center, bringing home second baseman Jimmy Glowenke (the 68th overall pick in 2020) in a mini ninth-inning rally.
- Continuing their pattern from past camps, the Giants didn’t extend non-roster invites to any of their biggest prospects. But three of those players — Marco Luciano, Heliot Ramos and Hunter Bishop — were on hand Friday. As a member of the 40-man roster, Ramos is already in big-league camp, but Luciano and Bishop got call-ups to come off the bench in the big-league team’s spring opener. That is generally how the Giants have gotten their most promising young players reps in spring training under Kapler; Friday certainly won’t be the last time any of that trio steps on the field at Scottsdale Stadium this spring. Ramos was the first to enter the game Friday night, taking over in right field for Yastrzemski in the top of the fifth, followed the next inning by Bishop subbing in for Jaylin Davis in center field. Luciano entered in the seventh as a defensive replacement for Mauricio Dubon, whose sixth-inning walk amounted to the Giants’ only baserunner through six frames.
- In his first plate appearance, Luciano reached base on a fielder’s choice and advanced to second after Ramos poked a single through the right side, but that amounted to all the action from San Francisco’s blue chippers.
