12 strikeouts in a game isn’t a winning formula for Logan Webb.

He’s reached the dozen mark twice in his career and both times, it’s come with a loss. Opening Day 2023, Webb punched out 12 Yankees in The Bronx, but he also walked two and allowed four runs on a pair of homers.

More than two years later, he’s done it again, and though the accompanying line of 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K reads a lot prettier, the end result is the same. A loss for Webb, and a loss for the San Francisco Giants as they open up their weekend series against the Los Angeles Angels of I-5.

Two runs in the 2nd tilted the scales in the Angels favor in a marquee duel of crafty pitching between Webb and southpaw counterpart, Tyler Anderson.

Webb maxed out the radar gun at 94 MPH, Anderson’s fastball clocked in at 91 MPH — obviously deception rather than velocity reigned. Both bobbed and weaved around the zone: Webb with backdoor sink and offspeed lilt, while Anderson worked high and low with his four seam and power change-up.

It appears San Francisco has caught Anderson on the rise of what appears to be a late career resurgence.

The 35 year old has been stingy with the hits so far, giving up just two hits over his previous two starts. Walks (10 in 15 IP) had been his only blemish to this early season — but Anderson’s stuff was pretty much faultless through the 6 innings he pitched on Friday. He kept hitters off-balanced and the baseball away from their bat barrels by mixing speeds and varying his delivery. Frankly I couldn’t take my eyes off the heel hitch in his stride. He pitches like how a horse trots, bringing that lead hoof up, nearly kicking his thigh before pushing towards home. Each delivery felt like it should’ve been accompanied by a minstrel banging coconut halves together.

It wasn’t just the Giants didn’t score any runs, it was that they weren’t even close. Batting for San Francisco was an excercise in futility. The lead-off hitter failed to get on base in every inning. They went hitless in the two at-bats they had with a runner in scoring position. No Giant reached third. No Giant reached second after the 3rd. No Giant recorded an extra base hit for the first time this season.

The most dynamic offensive event of the evening was Jung Hoo Lee’s two-out bunt single in the 1st.

Obviously Lee picked up another couple of hits and reached base three times — but this highlights one of the glaring problems about this lineup so far. They aren’t hitting lefties, and when they do hit lefties, it’s the lefties that are hitting them.

Going into Friday’s game, the Giants were batting .207 with an ominous .666 OPS against all left-handed pitchers. In the six games they’ve faced southpaw starters, they’re batting just .185 with a .595 OPS. Righty bats, boasting the split advantage, are all jammed up on the interstate, hitting .190 with a .600 OPS, while lefties (mainly Lee) have a .286 average and a .959 OPS.

The individual numbers are worse than the collective. In 23 plate appearances (again this is before facing Anderson) Heliot Ramos was batting .182 with a .535 OPS. Willy Adames has just two singles against left-handed pitching so far, good for a .091 average and .251 OPS (25 PA). Wilmer Flores’s .105 batting average is somewhat redeemed by his two homers off lefties. Matt Chapman, who walked twice against Anderson, appears to be the only right-handed bat in the lineup right now that is doing what he’s supposed to be doing against southpaws, hitting .333 with a 1.011 OPS (22 PA).

The slow start for Willy Adames, the rough stretch for the starting rotation, the low-performances with platoon advantage, and now the second Webb gem wasted in this early season. It’s wild to think about how many things have gone wrong for these Giants within these first couple weeks.

I mean, it’s just wrong that Webb can’t properly relish the fact that he struck out Mike Trout three times because of what happened in the 2nd. He should be sprawled out on his hotel bed right now eating Cheez-It crackers while replaying that hat-trick of pitches over and over in his head — a gorgeous backdoor sinker in the 1st, followed by two perfectly weighted change-ups in the 3rd and the 6th.

But no, Webb can’t bask in the knowledge that while Trout might be one of the best lowball hitters in the game, he can go even lower, because tonight’s dominance is tainted by that dumb cutter to Nolan Schanuel followed by that dumb change-up to Zach Neto

Two pitches delivered in two-strike counts with two outs that set-up the Angels’ two runs. Those terrible twos.

Webb had coasted through the 1st and two-thirds of the 2nd before he cruised a middle-middle cutter to Schanuel that he lined to the warning track in center for a 2-out double. And though Webb had buried two previous hitters in the inning with below-the-zone change-ups, he had trouble locating the offspeed to Neto when pitching from the stretch. He ripped it through the glove of Willy Adames for an RBI double. 106 MPH sinker off the bat. Playable, sure — with a chest protector and an insouciant attitude towards one’s health. Still, I can’t help but wonder how that inning would’ve played out if Adames had been able to at least knock that ball down, body be damned.

What should’ve been fielded was the next ball in play, a grounder towards the 5.5 hole. Instead, an uncharacteristic boot by Matt Chapman allowed Neto to score from second. A superfluous run in the end, but one that loomed large given the dominance of Anderson.

Two-out, two-strike RBIs will drive pitchers crazy, especially when they’re given up on uncompetitive pitches. Of the two burned by Angels’ bats, the cutter to Schanuel has got to grate Webb most.

The cutter is the fun new toy for Webb against lefties. He doesn’t throw it a lot — around 13% of the time — but he had yet to allow a hit with it this year. Of the 7 he threw on Friday night, three of them went to Schanuel in the 2nd. The first two came in chin-high and Schanuel had actually chased one of them, setting up a great count advantage. In a 1-2 count, he had pitches to play with. Jorge Soler and Logan O’Hoppe had just waved over change-ups in the dirt. Schanuel had just watched another go by for a strike. The hitter’s eye-level was raised, the outside zone stretched wide — why not go back to the pitch you’ve built your career off of? Why force the cutter when he clearly was struggling to locate it?

There are no answers except for the answer: Sometimes…men do funny things. There is no greater truth. Webb went with the shiny-and-new over the tried-and-true. Tale as old as time.

I hope Webb doesn’t lose too much sleep over it. Other than the non-change to Schanuel and the slightly elevated one to Neto, it was Webb’s best offspeed showing of the season. 27 change-ups (26%) was the most he had thrown all season. While only a quarter of them were in the zone, they fetched a 40% chase rate. 5 of the 12 strikeouts came with the change-up (4 swinging, 1 looking). 11 of the 14 swings by Angels hitters against the pitch missed — the only one put in play ended up being Neto’s double. A perfect contrast to the sinker, which fetched just two whiffs (and 11 fouls) but 12 called strikes. When those two offerings harmonize like they did tonight, Webb is at his best.