The Giants are back at .500, and Logan Webb says there's more to accomplish

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DENVER – The Giants have won eight of nine games and reached .500 for the first time since Aug. 10. They opened September on Monday afternoon with an 8-2 win over the last-place Rockies and sit five games out of the wild-card race with 24 left in the season.

Their position in the standings must be a major talking point throughout the clubhouse, right?

“No,” ace pitcher Logan Webb said. “To be honest, we have not as a group looked at that. We haven't talked about it.”

Why not?

“It got really bad there for a while,” Webb said, referencing the run of subpar play that knocked the Giants from contention, including a 1-15 historically bad home stretch. “So we just kind of put our heads down and said, ‘Look, let's just try to take it day by day and play for something bigger than ourselves.’

“Good things have happened, right?”

Indeed. The Giants won two straight in Milwaukee, swept the Cubs, and took two of three from Baltimore. They’re playing their best baseball in months, and much of it stems from the power game. The Giants hit three more homers Monday, starting with Rafael Devers’ laser-shot down the line in right that registered 114.5 miles per hour off the bat, the Giants’ highest reading for a homer since Statcast began measuring these things. The Giants have homered in 15 straight games for the first time since 2001, the year Barry Bonds broke the single-season record.

Devers' 14th homer since arriving from Boston preceded Labor Day home runs from Drew Gilbert and Willy Adames, who has 26 on the season and is on track to become the Giants' first 30-home run hitter since Bonds hit 45 in 2004.

Power isn't the only reason the Giants have turned things around. They're doing the little things right as well, at least for the most part, and they’re pitching well enough to keep the team in most every game. Kai-Wei Teng brought a shutout bid into the sixth inning Monday, never an easy task in the Mile High City.

“So maybe it was pressure that we were putting on ourselves subconsciously,” Webb said, “but we're a major-league baseball team, we're major-league baseball players, we’re all capable of doing great things, so we need to just continue taking it day by day and enjoying it while we’re doing it.”

Yeah it’s a cliche, but with one of the more streaky teams in recent Giants history, that day-to-day mentality is probably best. It does no good to look too far ahead when this team has been unable to sustain any prolonged level of consistency. It would be fool’s gold to talk too much about chasing the Mets, who hold the final wild-card spot, until the standings show the Giants are on somewhat equal footing.

In the wake of winning five of six at home, a stretch in which the Giants scored 50 runs, their most in a six-game homestand in Oracle Park history, the calendar turned to September. It’s the season’s final month, when teams and their players make a last-ditch effort to compile as many wins as possible and pad as many stats as possible.

For the Giants, there’s more to it. It’s not just about finishing strong, it’s about seeking answers for next season. It’s about giving extended looks to Casey Schmitt at second base (he exited Monday’s game after getting pelted on his right elbow) and Luis Matos in right field. It’s about monitoring an assortment of relievers in a bullpen that has just two pitchers remaining from the Opening Day roster, Ryan Walker and Spencer Bivens. It’s about contemplating a rotation beyond Webb, Robbie Ray, and Landen Roupp.

Top executives Buster Posey and Zack Minasian are in Denver, both with one eye on the final month of the season and the other on the future. Two September callups arrived in the clubhouse, pitcher JT Brubaker, who recently was signed after getting cut by the Yankees — he made three appearances with Triple-A Sacramento and gave up two runs in 11 innings — and outfielder Grant McCray.

As for Marco Luciano, Jesús Rodríguez, Blade Tidwell (currently shelved with a shoulder injury) and other prospects, manager Bob Melvin said it’s still possible they could get called up this month. Not Bryce Eldridge, though. Posey told The Standard last week the team’s No. 1 prospect still needs development in Triple-A.

On multiple fronts, September is meaningful to the Giants no matter how they finish the season. One positive accomplishment would be a winning record for the first time in four years.

“We’ve had only one winning team since I’ve been here. It sucks to say that, but it’s true,” Webb said. “In 2021, we won 107 games, and that last month, month and a half, we did a great job of really not caring about what we were going up against. We obviously knew we were fighting the Dodgers for the division, but we didn’t care about what other teams were doing. We just tried to win every single game.”

Beyond the motivation to win games, players tend to be driven in the final month for different reasons, whether it’s a salary drive or simply to reach certain accomplishments and goals. For Webb, who undoubtedly will receive Cy Young Award votes, it’s the same as in the past two seasons: pitch as many solid innings as possible to increase the Giants’ odds to win on his days to start.

The right-hander topped the National League in innings in both 2023 and 2024 and leads the league again this year at 173 ⅔.

“To be able to do it again would be really cool,” he said. “It's something I can say to Justin.”

Ah, yes, bragging rights. Another motivating factor, even though it’s all in fun. Baseball isn’t just about competition within the league. It’s about competition within the clubhouse. Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, Webb’s locker neighbor, led the league in innings three times over four years from 2009 to 2012, but never three years in a row.

“That’s one thing I’d have on him,” Webb said.

Webb also has a chance to lead the league in strikeouts for the first time. He’s tied for second with Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes at 187, eight behind leader Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler, who’s out for the season. Webb’s first 200-strikeout season has been a goal, and he should reach it so long as he sticks in the rotation.

“I've said this to you before,” Webb said, “but I've always tried to strike people out. It's not that I haven't. I’m just doing a better job at it this year. And, you know what? I'm always capable of having a one-strikeout game, so I don't want to jinx it.”

Webb wasn’t always considered a premier strikeout pitcher, relative to the rest of the league. In 2022, he ranked 20th in strikeouts at 163. He jumped to 11th in 2023 (194) and 12th in 2024 (172).

Now he has a decent chance to become the first Giant to lead the league in K’s since Tim Lincecum. Webb probably has five starts left, beginning Tuesday night.

“The main thing is, we’re playing clean baseball,” Webb said. “It's what we did at the beginning of the year. We were a really good team at the start of the year. We won a lot of games. Then we didn't play to our best ability. We know that. We’re not happy about it. But baseball’s a weird game. You control what you can control.

“There's a lot of time left. There's a whole month left. We have opportunities.”