Tony Vitello wasn’t going to let Giants’ Logan Webb finish no-hitter

MILWAUKEE — Tony Vitello apparently didn’t get the message: Logan Webb wasn’t coming out of an active no-hit bid. No chance.

“I would’ve thrown 200 pitches,” Webb said. “I would’ve asked for an extra day.”

It didn’t come to that, not once Brice Turang flicked a sweeper below the knees and off the plate just out of reach of a diving Matt Chapman with one down in the seventh inning.

But that’s the kind of ace Webb is. He hadn’t been himself for most of this season.

Excuse the wording — staff leader.

“I hate the word ace, to be honest,” Webb said. “I feel like I haven’t done my job as a leader … I feel like I’ve not led the right way — just in my performance. To be able to get healthy, feel better and throw the way I feel like I should, it was nice to get this one.” 

For better or worse, the Giants’ starting rotation has largely taken after its leader. In the past that has meant a bulldog mentality and competing to one-up each other.

But this year, the 4.82 ERA Webb took into Wednesday’s 1-0 win over the Brewers was indicative of the rotation’s performance as a whole. Even after Webb’s seven shutout innings, only the Rockies possess an ERA from their rotation worse than the Giants’ 4.84 mark.

With an example set to follow, there’s hope the winds will begin to change.

It starts with Adrian Houser in the matinee finale of the four-game series Thursday.

“The one group that I felt like the whole season was really good was ‘21 — I hate bringing it up all the time — but it felt like we always tried to out-do each other, in a good way,” Webb said. “Say, OK, I went seven [and] gave up none today. Houser tomorrow, you try to go eight.”

It didn’t just come from Webb: Vitello singled out the way Winn responded after Christian Yelich led off the ninth by placing the tying run on second with a broken-bat double into the right field corner.

It was a whole team effort, with Daniel Susac picking two splitters out of the dirt, preventing them from going to the backstop, with Yelich 90 feet away.

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“In the room, it was a great opportunity to say, ‘Here we go again,’” Vitello said. “We’ve been in that situation a lot and it hasn’t gone our way.”

Webb described the win, complete with a highlight reel of defensive plays, just enough offense from the first home run of Victor Bericoto’s big-league career and a gritty five-out save that was also the first of his career for Keaton Winn, as “a very San Francisco Giants win, in a good way.”

There haven’t been many of those in a season that had produced the majors’ worst record entering the night, having lost seven of their previous eight.

“I’m not saying I’m leading the way, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction,” Webb said. “I think everyone gets excited when you have a game like this because wins are hard to come by, especially ones like this.”

Webb took his perfect game bid into the sixth and a no-hitter into the seventh. Vitello was asked if there was ever a point where he thought Webb would take it to the finish line.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I don’t know that it would’ve been fair to him.”

Webb’s pitch count had risen to 85 and he was at 95 when he departed the game for good after the seventh. It had been more than a month since he had thrown that many pitches after a 15-day stint on the injured list nursing bursitis in his knee, one rehab start and an abbreviated return last week at Coors Field.

That context weighed on Vitello’s mind as Webb continued to retire batter after batter in his bid to toss the Giants’ first no-hitter since Blake Snell’s against the Reds in 2024.

“With these circumstances, with it being such a tight score and him being back just his second time after being on the IL, it’s a constant conversation,” Vitello said. “I think we started to kind of talk about him going eight. … But he was going to have to be pretty efficient.”

Webb, on the other hand, watched Tim Lincecum throw 148 pitches during his first no-hitter in 2013 and Alex Cobb come one out away while extending himself to 131 three years ago.

Whether or not Turang’s flare found the outfield grass, Vitello had already shown his hand.

“I’m gonna blame Tony because he did call down [to the bullpen] right before I gave up the hit and said have someone ready,” Webb joked. “So I’m going to blame him.”