Potential All-Star Game combatants will have a rare face-to-face when Logan Webb and the San Francisco Giants go for a second consecutive win over Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.
The Giants got a great start from Blake Snell, who returned from a five-week stay on the injured list, and a great finish in the form of a walk-off wild pitch en route to a 4-3 triumph in Tuesday’s opener of the three-game interleague series.
A six-year veteran, Webb (7-6, 3.09 ERA) has pitched just once against the Blue Jays, taking the loss in a 6-1 defeat last June in Toronto. He allowed five runs in five innings.
Webb gave up four doubles, including one each to George Springer and Daulton Varsho, but got the better of Guerrero in all three of their showdowns. Webb struck out the Toronto star twice and got him to ground out.
Webb was named to his first National League All-Star team last week, while Guerrero was voted an American League starter for the third time. He will be making his fourth appearance.
The announcement of Webb’s selection came Sunday while the Giants were on the road, so the staff ace will be greeted as an All-Star for the first time by his home crowd when he takes the mound Wednesday.
“Honestly, it’s just an honor to be able to say I’m going to be an All-Star for the San Francisco Giants,” said Webb, who didn’t make the NL team last season in a year in which he would finish second in Cy Young Award balloting.
“I wasn’t expecting anything,” he continued. “I was kind of going into it just like: All right, whatever happens, happens.”
Wednesday’s start is the last scheduled for Webb this week, meaning he’ll be plenty rested for next Tuesday’s showcase if called upon.
The right-hander earned wins over the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves in his past two starts, limiting the NL powers to a total of four runs in 14 innings.
Guerrero went 0-for-4 in Tuesday’s loss, a game the Blue Jays led 3-2 entering the last of the ninth. He’s just 3-for-16 over four games on Toronto’s trip that began last Friday in Seattle.
Unlike Webb, the first baseman was counting upon making his annual trek to the midsummer classic as he approaches the midpoint in the chase of one of his dad’s distinctions.
“It’s one more closer to my dad,” he said of Vladimir Sr., a Hall of Fame member who made the All-Star team nine times. “I’m getting close to him. (Reaching nine is) my goal.”
Webb’s mound rival is scheduled to be right-hander Chris Bassitt (7-7, 3.43), who saw an eight-game unbeaten streak come to an end in a 5-3 home loss to the Houston Astros last Thursday in his most recent start. He allowed four runs in five innings after giving up a total of just nine runs in 37 innings the entire month of June.
The 35-year-old, a former star across the bay for the Oakland Athletics, will be making his seventh career start against the Giants, having gone 2-2 with a 4.41 in his first six. The best of the bunch came June 29, 2023, when he threw six shutout innings, allowing three hits, with a career-high-tying 12 strikeouts in a 2-1 home win.
-Field Level Media