Logan Webb strikes out 10, Giants hit 3 homers off Mike Burrows to beat Pirates

Only six days after Mike Burrows used his changeup to finish off a series sweep of the San Francisco Giants with a six-inning gem, the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander faced Logan Webb in a rematch.

Where Webb commanded the strike zone in recording 10 strikeouts without a walk, Burrows was frustrated by his lack of control on the changeup and how the Giants attacked his four-seam fastball.

The Giants took Burrows deep three times as Christian Koss, Jerar Encarnacion and Willy Adames hit home runs in an 8-1 win Tuesday night before 18,421 at PNC Park.

“I was really just mad about the walks,” Burrows said of his three-walk third inning. “If they pop those up on first-pitch heaters, I mean, we’re not even talking about it. But, yeah, they ambushed heaters and they got hold of them. It’s kind of just tip your hat, good for them. Just more so mad about the walks.”

Webb allowed one run on seven hits in six innings, relying on his sinker, changeup and sweeper, and mixed in a cutter and four-seamer while throwing 74 of his 110 pitches for strikes.

“Man, the arsenal, the pitch mix,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “He’s pumping strikes. Going back-to-back 110 pitches and just mixing everything up. Different looks with the fastball in-out, but the sweeper and changeup, the changeup especially, he can throw it to righty and lefty.”

In a 2-1 win July 30 at San Francisco, Burrows had seven strikeouts against one walk while allowing one run on three hits in six innings to outduel Webb. So he wasn’t worried about facing the Giants in successive starts.

“That’s part of it. They recently saw me, but at the same time, I also thought it was a cool test to go back-to-back against a team and see, because those situations might come up in the future, in the playoffs (where) you’ve got to face a team twice back-to-back pretty quick,” Burrows said. “So, yeah, took it as a time to learn and see what we could do back-to-back against the same team.”

Burrows (1-4) retired the first seven batters he faced before losing command of his changeup in a 37-pitch third inning. He walked Patrick Bailey, then Koss crushed the next pitch, a 94.2 mph fastball down the middle, 419 feet to left field for a two-run home run. Heliot Ramos drew an 11-pitch walk and Rafael Devers a full-count walk, but Burrows got Adames to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the frame.

Webb (10-8) struck out four consecutive batters before allowing four consecutive singles in a 35-pitch third. Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a one-out single to right in the third, and Spencer Horwitz and Tommy Pham followed with singles to load the bases for Bryan Reynolds, whose line drive to left scored Kiner-Falefa to make it 2-1. Webb recovered to strike out Oneil Cruz and get Nick Gonzales to ground out to short to strand all three runners.

“I thought we did a good job that inning stacking the singles together, getting it going, going the other way on a couple,” Kelly said. “Izzy and Bryan and just really trying to stack at-bats together. I think that’s what makes Webb so effective, that he’s able to slow things down. He’s an All-Star, done it for a long time. Really good pitcher and was able to slow it down in that moment and get out of it.”

Encarnacion hammered a first-pitch fastball for a 415-foot homer to center field for a 3-1 lead in the fourth, and the Giants continued to pad their lead over the next two innings.

“I think I lost some feel in the third, but I was just happy to get out of it (with two runs) whatever, walk and a home run,” Burrows said. “After that, I thought we were going to roll, and it got a little sticky in the fifth again.”

In the fifth, Ramos lined a single to left and advanced to second when Pham lost grip of the ball on his throw to second for an error. Ramos scored when Devers singled past first baseman Horwitz. Adames followed with a two-run homer to right to make it 6-1.

In the sixth, Dominic Smith hit a leadoff single off Braxton Ashcraft and advanced to third on Jung Hoo Lee’s ground-rule double. Bailey drove in both runners with a single to right for an 8-1 lead.

Cam Sanders, a 28-year-old right-handed reliever who had his contract selected by the Pirates from Triple-A Indianapolis, made his major-league debut in eighth inning.

Sanders got Bailey to fly out to right and Koss swinging at a cutter to record his first career strikeout before walking Ramos, then striking out Devers for a scoreless frame. In the ninth, Sanders gave up a single to Adames in the ninth but got Matt Chapman to pop up to third, Smith to line out to right and Encarnacion to line out to short.

“He did a great job for us, coming in and finishing those last two innings,” Kelly said. “A different look and a different arm slot, but the stuff is electric when he’s pairing the 98 fastball with the slider, and the changeup looks really good, too. Big day for him. Got a few punchouts and did really well. He did exactly what we needed him to do there, going two innings and finishing the game.”