Webb, Crawford lead Giants to 7-4 win over Mets

The San Francisco Giants held on to a big early lead today to beat the New York Mets 7-3.

Logan Webb had his best start of the season, allowing two runs on five hits with a walk and eight strikeouts over seven innings. He allowed a run in the second on a walk to Mark Canha that was followed by a double from Daniel Vogelbach that went deep into triples alley to score Canha. Then a solo shot to Brandon Nimmo in the third gave the Mets their second run of the day.

However, the Giants got to work early, much needed in yet another start against a left-handed pitcher, David Peterson. In the bottom of the first, Thairo Estrada hustled out an infield single to lead things off, followed by another single to Michael Conforto, a walk to Wilmer Flores, and a sac fly from David Villar that put the Giants on the board, scoring Estrada.

Then Brandon Crawford, who had been struggling enough lately to send him to the ninth spot of the lineup recently, came to the plate. He worked the count full before sending a ball on a ride into McCovey Cove and scoring three runs.

Side note here, if you were listening to the radio broadcast, you would have heard Jon Miller and Dave Flemming go on a bit of a rant about the lack of forethought by the Fox broadcasters for not having a splash cam for this broadcast. Hopefully ESPN is taking notes for tomorrow.

The bottom of the second was a bit chaotic. Heliot Ramos started things off with a line drive double to center field. Initially, LaMonte Wade, Jr. followed this up with a bunt single that scored Ramos, but it was ultimately deemed a dead ball because it hit Wade’s bat twice, and Wade ended up striking out.

Estrada singled after that, sending Ramos to third, and then stole second. He was initially called out, but the Giants successfully challenged. Darin Ruf then singled in Ramos (for real this time) and Jeff Young of Around the Foghorn had probably my favorite tweet of the day:

Pettiness aside, Conforto reached on a fielder’s choice to Pete Alonso, whose throw home was not in time to get Estrada. The Mets challenged the tag, but it was upheld and the Giants had a 6-1 lead to end the inning.

I’ve seen games like this lately, though. Just last Saturday, in fact. The Giants scored early, the starting pitching was good, and then the bats went to bed as the lead slipped away late in the game. Thankfully, though, that was not quite the case today.

Wilmer Flores lead off the fifth inning with a shot to left to give the Giants their seventh run of the game.

To add a little personal color to this, I was watching this game with my best friend, a Mets fan who lives in Norway. It’s the only time we get to watch games together (via the internet of course) so I’d been looking forward to it. He was a bit forlorn when he went to bed after the sixth inning, but I said (based on recent history) “Don’t worry, when Webb comes out of the game, the Mets will mount their comeback.”

Well, Webb left after seven strong innings, and Scott Alexander entered and began immediately trying to prove me right. He allowed a first pitch single to Brett Baty, followed by a bunt from Tomas Nido that Alexander fielded but ultimately had a throwing error attempting to get the ball to Flores for the out at first. This allowed Baty to advance to third.

Nimmo followed that up by grounding into a fielder’s choice that got Nido out at second, and Starling Marte hit a line drive single to left field, scoring Baty. Francisco Lindor flied out to Brett Wisely, who made a heck of a running catch when Wade couldn’t quite get a read on it with the sun in his eyes.

The most notable part of the bottom of the eighth, for me, was that it seemed as though the Mets pitchers were out for blood today. Joey Bart was hit by a pitch, but it was like the eighth pitch of the day that nearly hit several players.

Camilo Doval entered to pitch the ninth, and with one out, allowed a single to Canha, who would later advance to second on defensive indifference. Canha would go on to score on a line drive single from Baty, who also took second on defensive indifference. But it didn’t matter, because Luis Guillorme grounded out to end the game.

It was the kind of home game the team desperately needed, after losing both of the previous games of this series and losing the only two series played at home thus far this season. It was the kind of start Logan Webb needed, and the kind of run support he’d been lacking as well. It was the kind of game Brandon Crawford needed. And it was the kind of game Giants fans needed too.