Kansas City. 2. 8. 0

San Francisco. 4. 6. 1

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

San Francisco Giants pitcher Logan Webb celebrates the third out of the top of the sixth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Tue Jun 14, 2022 (Bay Area News Group photo)

SAN FRANCISCO–The last time the Kansas City Royals (20-41) played at Oracle Park was in August of 2017, when it still was going by its third name, AT&T Park. The San Francisco Giants (35-26) finished that season tied with the Detroit Tigers for the worst record in major league baseball. KC finished up ’17 at 80-82.

A lot of water has flowed under the Golden Gate Bridge since then, and San Francisco entered tonight’s contest at 34-26, three games behind the Dodgers and Padres in what is shaping up to be a tight race for the NL West pennant. The Royals, on other hand, have no gonfalon bubble to be burst. After last night’s loss to San Francisco, they stood at 20-40, mired the cellar of all of MLB.

Each game, though, the season starts anew. That’s why the Cubans say that all we know about baseball is that it’s round and comes in a square box.

Before game time, the Giants announced Brandon Belt’s return from the injured list and the concomitant optioning of Donovan Walton to Sacramento. The left handed Belt, however, was not in the starting line up against KC’s southpaw starting pitcher, Kris Bubic.

Neither starter had faced the other team before. Bubic, selected by Kansas City out of Stanford in the first round of the 2018 draft, sported, if that’s the word, an 0-3,9.13 record when he took the mound. San Francisco’s Logan Webb was 5-2,3.77 after his defense let him down in the fourth frame against the Rockies.

Over the course of his first seven starts before tonight, his slider had lost much of its effectiveness, but it’s achieved a remarkable improvement in his last half dozen outings.

The Giants’ eventual 4-2 victory wasn’t unexpected, but the dramatic quality of the action was.

It started out as a pitchers’ duel. The Giants didn’t get a hit off of Bubic until Brian Crawford laced a single to right with one down in the bottom of the fifth.

All that Kansas City had mustered against Webb up to then had been one safety each to Nicky López and Carlos Santana. Between them, the rival hurlers had K´d 11 oponents, five by Bubic and the remainder by Webb.

Neither team reached third base until the top of the sixth, after Michael Taylor reached first on a slow grounder to third on which Wilmer Flores made a nice bare handed pick up followed by a throw that arrived late at first base.

Taylor proceeded to steal second as López struck out and advanced to the hot corner on Whit Merrifield´s fly to deep left. After Andrew Benintendi drew a controversial 3-2 walk, Bobby Witt, Jr., went down swinging, preserving the scoreless tie.

San Francisco finally broke through in the bottom of that frame. This time it was the defending team that suffered the Curse of the Lead Off Double. (One person’s curse is another person’s blessing). González hit it into the left field corner. Slater struck out , but Flores drove in the game’s initial tally with a sharp single to left.

He moved on to third himself on Pederson’s single to third and then scored on Ruf’s single to right center, which put an end to Boric’s impressive outing. Righty Dylan Coleman relieved the southpaw, which motivated the substitution of Tommy LaStella for Longoria. The pinch hitter lofted a sacrifice fly to right that upped the SF lead to 3-0.

Bubic had lasted 5-1/3 innings and was charged with all three runs. They came on five hits and two walks. He struck out six and threw 95 pitches, only 35 of which were balls.

Kansas City threatened in the top of the seventh, but the Giants escaped by the skin of their teeth. MJ Meléndez drew a full count walk with one out and moved up a base on Santana’s single to right. Webb caught Kyle Isabel looking at a third strike and then surrendered a broken bat single to right by Taylor, but González´s throw beat Meléndez to the plate to end the inning and the incipient rally.

Daniel Mengden pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for the visitors.

Seven innings of shut out ball was enough for Webb this evening. He had held the Royals to five hits and three walks in his 112 pitch outing. 68 of those offerings were counted as strikes. Submariner Tyler Rogers took his place on the mound.

Before you knew it, the score was 3-2. López led off with a single to left and took second on Merrifield´s fly out to the center field warning track. Benintendi reached first on a grounder to short, on which Crawford made a fine play but wasn’t able to nab the speedy Royal at first.

López reached third on the play. He scored on Witt´s sac fly to center, and Benintendi advanced to second on Slater´s throwing error. He crossed the plate on a single to center by Pérez, bringing the Royals to within a run of their hosts.

The resurgent Royals called on Josh Staumont to face the orange and black in their half of the eighth. He reached three balls on each of the three batters he faced, walking two of them, Mike Yastrzemski, hitting for Slater, and Pederson and getting Flores out on a pop to center.

Then Brandon Belt pinch hit for Ruf, and Staumont was lifted, making way for Scott Barlow who hit Belt with his first pitch, loading the bases. Tommy LaStella brought Yastrzemski home with a sac fly to center that gave the home team an insurance run before Crawford struck out to take us into the ninth.

In the KC ninth, Camilo Doval went for his ninth save in 11 opportunities. He got it, striking out his last two opponents, Ryan ÓHearn and Nicky López.

Webb got the win, giving him a record of 6-2, 3.43. The tough loss went to Buic, now 0-4,8.36.

The series and the home stand end tomorrow with Jonathan Heasley (1-3,3.62) going against an as yet unnamed Giant starter.