Giants lose ground in Wild Card hunt despite 10 walks, Webb's gem in LA

LOS ANGELES -- Logan Webb didn’t exactly pitch to his strengths the last time he faced the Dodgers.

The Giants’ ace threw his sinker -- his most valuable pitch, per Statcast’s Run Value -- a season-low eight times when he faced Los Angeles at Oracle Park on Saturday.

The results weren’t pretty, as Webb went on to allow a season-high-matching six runs over four-plus innings.

Webb went back to trusting his stuff when he got another crack at the Dodgers on Thursday, but it still wasn’t enough.

The two-time All-Star allowed only one earned run over seven innings, but the Giants’ offense left too many scoring opportunities on the table in a 2-1 series-opening loss that dropped them one game below .500 (76-77) with nine games left to play.

San Francisco drew 10 walks from the Dodgers' pitching staff but only collected one hit, finishing 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine runners on base. It was the first time the Giants tallied at least 10 walks at Dodger Stadium since July 19, 2002, though that game lasted 12 innings.

After losing eight of their last 12 games, the Giants’ playoff hopes are looking increasingly faint. They’re now three games behind the Mets for the third National League Wild Card spot -- four if you factor in the tiebreaker -- and have also fallen behind the D-backs and the Reds in the standings.

It’s been a significant slide from where the Giants stood the last time Webb took the mound against the Dodgers just five days ago. San Francisco entered that game with a chance to overtake the imploding Mets for sole possession of the third NL Wild Card spot, but the club missed an opportunity to seize control of its own destiny after it blew a first-inning 4-1 lead en route to a crushing 13-7 loss to Los Angeles.

The Giants’ playoff odds have only plummeted since then, falling from 16.6% to 1.1%, according to FanGraphs.

"We’ve been a little Jekyll and Hyde, where we’ve been real good or real bad for stretches,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Unfortunately, it’s been the case. We don’t have much time left. We’ve got to get better tomorrow.”

The matchup between Webb and Yoshinobu Yamamoto lived up to its billing as a pitchers’ duel, with the two right-handers matching each other with five scoreless innings before the Dodgers managed to push two runs across in the sixth inning.

After Miguel Rojas led off with a single, Webb hung a first-pitch sweeper to Shohei Ohtani, who banged it off the right-field wall for a double that put runners on second and third with one out. Mookie Betts followed with a chopper to the left side that was fielded by shortstop Willy Adames, who threw home to try to get the lead runner.

Adames’ throw beat Rojas to the plate, but catcher Patrick Bailey couldn’t come up with the ball, allowing the Dodgers to get on the board via the missed-catch error.

“Webby made a great pitch,” Bailey said. “Willy made a heck of a play. I dropped the ball, which is unacceptable.”

Freddie Freeman then bounced a grounder past a diving Casey Schmitt for an RBI single that extended Los Angeles’ lead to 2-0.

That proved to be the extent of the damage against Webb, who yielded only four hits and one walk after going back to his sinker-heavy ways. Thirty-two of his 103 pitches were two-seamers (31%), which was much more in line with his season average (34%) this year.

“I was just trying not to overthink it,” Webb said. “Credit to Patty and the pitching coaches. They pretty much just said, ‘You’re good because you throw a good sinker and you throw a good changeup, not because you throw a good cutter. Don’t overthink it.’ I thought it was obviously better than last time but still not good enough.”

The Giants’ lineup grinded out six walks to force Yamamoto out of the game after 5 1/3 innings, but they went hitless outside of a second-inning single by Bailey. San Francisco cut the deficit to 2-1 after Rafael Devers drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh, but the club couldn’t add on after Blake Treinen struck out Adames and Matt Chapman to end the inning.

“Frustrating,” Melvin said. “We had traffic all night long. You’d think that we’d get one or two, especially with Webby doing what he’s doing on the mound. We saw a lot of pitches. We had a lot of traffic. We couldn’t get a big hit.”