Logan Webb toyed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, as the San Francisco Giants right-hander relied on off-speed and breaking pitches that danced around the strike zone but managed to miss their bats.

The Pirates had no answer for Webb, even when Giants manager Gabe Kapler left him in with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. Webb got Ben Gamel swinging for his ninth strikeout in eight scoreless innings.

Webb weaved a gem that made a mind-boggling statistic even more ominous: After a 2-0 loss to the Giants on Saturday night at Oracle Park, the Pirates are now 29-40 in 69 games decided by two runs or fewer.

That’s by far the most in the majors this season.

The Pirates have dropped seven of the first nine games on their 10-game road trip to Baltimore, Arizona and San Francisco and will attempt to avoid a three-game sweep in the series finale Sunday.

“Guys do get frustrated and they should get frustrated,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “When you have those opportunities and you don’t execute, that’s normal. We have to continue to grind. We have to continue to come out and play hard.”

It was the 12th shutout loss of the season — and eighth on the road — for the Pirates, who actually recorded more hits (five) than the Giants (four). Two hits by San Francisco’s leadoff batter LaMonte Wade Jr. made the difference, as the Giants designated hitter scored both runs.

Adding intrigue to a night where the Giants celebrated the 10th anniversary of their 2012 World Series championship was the matchup between former teammates Webb and Tyler Beede, who made his third opening start for the Pirates this month. Both were drafted by the Giants in 2014 — Beede in the first round, Webb in the fourth — and Beede officiated Webb’s wedding in December.

“Obviously, I’m facing the hitters as opposed to Webby, but I’ve always been a huge fan of Webby from a distance,” Beede said. “He pitched a heck of a game, controlled our bats well. It kind of was the reverse, in terms of getting strike one and getting our guys to expand the zone. He did a great job, quieted our bats.”

Beede got off to a rough start when the wind took Wade’s lazy pop fly for a ride and dropped in on left fielder Tucupita Marcano for a double and Joc Pederson doubled to the left field warning track for a 1-0 lead.

Beede walked J.D. Davis but, after a mound visit from pitching coach Oscar Marin, recovered to record a strikeout, fly out and a grounder for a forceout. It required a 27-pitch first inning, a sign of Beede’s inefficiency.

Marin’s message?

“Just slowing the game down, getting back in the zone and being competitive with my pitches and, at that point in the game, just trying to force some contact and get quick outs,” Beede said. “It was good to get out of that inning. Things could have snowballed on me.”

Wade, who went 2 for 3, led off the third by driving Beede’s full-count fastball 410 feet into the right field seats for his sixth home run and a 2-0 Giants lead. It was more than enough run support for Webb.

Where Webb (11-5) was efficient in throwing 81 pitches through his first seven innings, Beede (1-2) had as many walks (three) as he did hits and strikeouts and needed a season-high 74 pitches to get through three innings.

“The challenge the first few innings was getting ahead, first-pitch strikes. Too many deep counts. They did a good job with a patient approach, seeing some pitches,” Beede said. “You’ve got to make an adjustment. I wasn’t able to make that adjustment out there, just seeing that approach.”

The Pirates bullpen did, as Eric Stout, Duane Underwood Jr. and Chase De Jong combined to allow one hit, two walks and record nine strikeouts over five scoreless innings in relief.

Webb didn’t give up a hit until the third inning, when Rodolfo Castro hit a leadoff double. Castro went 2 for 4 in his second consecutive start at third base for Ke’Bryan Hayes, who is day to day with back spasms. But Webb made a nice defensive play, fielding Kevin Newman’s two-out dribbler down the first base line and diving to beat him to the bag.

It was in the eighth that the Pirates finally tested Webb. Marcano lined a one-out double to the left field corner, pinch hitter Josh VanMeter drew a walk and after Newman lined out to left, Bryan Reynolds drew a walk to load the bases.

Despite throwing 99 pitches, Kapler left Webb in to face Gamel, who went down swinging by fouling off a changeup for the final out. Webb threw 44 changeups for six called strikes and 11 whiffs.

“He did a nice job,” Shelton said. “The changeup was really good. He was able to execute it throughout the count at any point and he was extremely effective.”

The Giants turned to closer Camilo Doval in the ninth, and he struck out Cruz to start. Greg Allen drew a walk, stole second and reached third on a groundout by Bligh Madris. That brought the tying run to the plate in Castro, who had a pair of hits in his first two at-bats but lined out to left as Doval recorded his 17th save.

“When you get in a rhythm and a tempo like (Webb) did, the only time we really got him slowed down at all was in the eighth,” Shelton said. “When we got him late in the game there, we had good at-bats and we ran him up. We just weren’t able to crack through.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)