Giants’ Webb is a gem on mound, at bat

SAN FRANCISCO — So the Giants may not catch the Dodgers. Probably nobody else in the National League will either. Forget what cannot be. Consider what can — a winning season for San Francisco, the first in years.

It’s early. Too early maybe to draw conclusions or make predictions. And yet as April heads into May, there may be a reason to believe.

Not that the Giants will win the pennant, but that they will be respectable, perhaps even sneak into the postseason as a wild card.

The Giants, on a Sunday at Oracle Park that went from rain to sunshine, made life tense but eventually satisfying for 7,572 fans, holding on to a 4-3 win over the Miami Marlins.

Logan Webb pitched the way the Giants believed he could (seven shutout innings) and had a triple to drive in two runs. (That was last done by a Giants pitcher we knew as “The Freak,” Tim Lincecum.)

If that were not enough, Jason Vosler, brought up Saturday from the alternate training site (doesn’t the label "alternate training site" make it seem like a mysterious place in Peru?), singled in the eighth, his first major league hit.

He has the ball. What the Giants have is a series victory and the second-best record in the NL.

How? Not with their bats certainly. The team average before the game was .214. Someone only half-seriously even asked Giants manager Gabe Kapler if Webb, as Madison Bumgarner had in the past, might be used as a pinch hitter.

As with previous efficient Giants teams, they’re doing it with pitching.

Webb had a great spring in the desert, but Kapler pointed out, “I just think the version of Logan Webb in spring training wasn’t as good as the version today. And to be rewarded with that ball to right center field (the triple) was awesome.”

That’s an appropriate word for the Oracle Park ground crew, which as a drizzle persisted the first three innings spent as much time on the diamond as the players, between innings dumping bags of a drying agent on the infield.

The bravest spectators watched the ballgame and field repair in the lower uncovered sections from under umbrellas.

The wet conditions caused the ball to slip out of Webb’s hand on a few pitches. There were three batters hit by pitches, although only one was Webb’s.

Mostly Webb, who wears No. 62 (does he double as an offensive lineman?), hit the target. “We worked on a lot of things,” Webb said of his preparation. giving credit to catcher Curt Casali.

“I’m still not where I want to be, honestly. I gained a lot of confidence from this game.”

Why not? He didn’t give up a run in seven innings, allowed three hits, three walks and struck out eight. There can be no debate. This was a quality start. This also was a revelation for Webb.

“Now I know why hitters like hitting so much,” said Webb, referring to what he thought was his first triple since high school.

“When you hit it, it just feels good. That was fun, but I was definitely tired. when I got there.”

Kapler said, “Impressive swing. When I took him out (after seven) the guys on the bench were joking that I took the best bat out of the lineup.”

Hey, Gabe, are you sure they were joking?

A year ago, most everyone in baseball was joking about the Giants. A scout was quoted before the season saying he thought San Francisco was barely a major league team. It certainly is now.

If a bit beat up.

Vosler got his chance when Wilmer Flores came out of the game with an injury. Evan Longoria and Brandon Crawford didn’t play because they were hurt previously.

What the Giants did have was Logan Webb, the pitcher who Sunday was the hitter, a perfect combination.