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Giants have squandered Logan Webb’s talents; an anonymous group changed that for a day

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SAN FRANCISCO — A starting pitcher spends much more time studying the opposing lineup than his own. But you could forgive Logan Webb if he did a double take when the San Francisco Giants refreshed the video board in their clubhouse Saturday morning.

Rafael Devers and Jung Hoo Lee were the only vestiges from the group that started behind Webb on opening day. Rookie slugger Bryce Eldridge, promoted in May, was in there, of course. As for the rest? Well, you could say the Giants were out of their depth.

If the Giants had tried to send Saturday’s lineup to Goodyear or Glendale for a Cactus League exhibition, they might have been fined by Major League Baseball for not having enough regulars. Under no mid-March scenario did they envision starting a major-league game with names like Drew Cavanaugh, Buddy Kennedy, Osleivis Basabe and Turner Hill.

Hill’s debut Saturday came after he forced his way to the big leagues with a 26-game hitting streak at Triple-A Sacramento. He’s an undrafted free agent from Marietta College in Ohio. It’s important to celebrate stories of improbable success, even if they tend to happen only under the most imperfect of team circumstances.

If the Giants’ imperfect lineup didn’t appear to bother Webb on the mound Saturday, maybe that’s because he is the least likely person in their clubhouse to put on airs. He might be the least cliquish and most inclusive player in the league. When Webb tossed the last of his warmup pitches, as he viewed it, the players behind him were just as much his teammates as the group that backed him against the New York Yankees in March.

And besides, it’s not as if it had gone well with the fully assembled group behind him. Webb had taken the mound 21 times. The Giants were 8-13 in those games. Four of his starts were dominant outings in which he threw at least eight innings and allowed two runs or fewer. The Giants were 1-3 in those starts.

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Sound familiar? The Giants have squandered Webb’s starts for the better part of five years. They’ve had functional bullpens and fractional ones. They’ve employed three managers. The entire roster has come and gone. Webb is the only Giant who remains from the 2022 season. The cast has changed, yet the script stayed the same: The Giants simply haven’t been able to leverage their best starting pitcher into winning an acceptable number of games. Not enough to make the postseason in any of those years, anyway.

Entering Saturday, here is what Webb had done in five seasons since 2022:

Three-time All-Star

Three-time top-6 finisher in NL Cy Young voting

Three-time NL leader in innings pitched

3.27 ERA

2.98 FIP

4.12 K/BB

1.16 WHIP

MLB-most 99 quality starts

Here is the Giants’ record in Webb’s starts: 75-78.

When we rank things, we tend to focus on the best of the best. But the Giants’ total mediocrity in spite of Webb might rank No. 1 on this sad list: the biggest waste of talent in Bay Area pro sports history.

Yet Webb, seemingly unaffected, keeps taking the mound and giving the Giants a chance. He did it again Saturday afternoon, retaining his focus, paying attention to detail, tweaking his pitch mix and keeping the Colorado Rockies off balance while holding them to a run on four hits in six innings. Leadoff man Drew Gilbert deposited a home run atop the right-field arcade and hit a two-run single as the Giants won 7-1 in front of a paid crowd of 35,069.

Even though the Giants are playing games with zero playoff implications, Webb said he feels just as much responsibility to be a standard setter on a young team as he would on a seasoned group sniffing October baseball. Maybe even more.

“It doesn’t matter what team you’re on,” Webb said. “If you’re the starting pitcher, you’re always just trying to set the tone. But definitely with our team right now — I saw yesterday we have 18 guys with less than two years of service time — so yeah, I’ve been here for a while and I’m … not Hunter Pence, right? I’m not gonna be the most vocal guy, but I can do it with how I work each day. I think that’s a valuable thing as well.”

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb sits in the dugout during a game against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 15, 2026.the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Logan Webb on Saturday logged his 100th quality start since the start of the 2022 season. He leads MLB in that category and in innings pitched in the last five seasons. (Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images via Reuters Connect)

There was a lighthearted moment in the second inning when Webb struck out Colorado’s Zac Veen. It was the 1,100th strikeout of Webb’s career, and apparently, that number was round enough for the Giants Productions crew to post a congratulatory message on the scoreboard. Webb sheepishly accepted the ovation from the crowd. The next batter, Connor Norby, gave him a confused look as if uncertain that he should get in the box.

“I think it messed up Norby a little bit,” Webb said. “He was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I’m like, ‘No, just get in the box. We’re fine.’ But the fans have treated me so well here, and to hear people cheering for that is cool. I mean, there was no significance of it. I didn’t even know that was going to happen. Hopefully there’s some better milestones further down the road. But yeah, I don’t think that was, like, a tip-the-cap moment or wave-the-glove moment. … But obviously, a very nice gesture.”

Here is a better round number that sums up what Webb has provided to the Giants: His outing Saturday was his 100th quality start (at least six innings, no more than three earned runs) over the last five seasons. He’s consistently given the Giants a chance to win, which is all a starting pitcher can hope to do.

“He’s ultraconfident out there,” Giants manager Tony Vitello said. “He’s super competitive. I mean, you would’ve thought it was the end of the world because he gave up a run. That’s kind of the competitive spirit you want your guys to have.

“Those younger guys have talked about (how) we need to play better when he’s pitching. … I’m not talking about scoring. You’re not going to score (seven) runs every time. But every pitcher should have a little bit different flavor when you come to the park. You should know who’s pitching, and it should add to the style of the day. But I think everybody in San Francisco knows how you should show up to the park if you know that Webby’s got the ball.”

The Giants plan to keep giving Webb the ball. They’ve been in this situation before, out of contention in September, but with Cy Young votes or 200-inning benchmarks to chase. Those goals aren’t there this season — missing a month with knee inflammation took him out of the running — but Vitello said there continues to be value in sending Webb to represent the club every fifth day.

Webb wouldn’t want it any other way. He was struck by a line drive on the back of his right shoulder in the fifth inning and convinced head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner that he could continue. Webb went back out to complete the sixth inning, too. Then the shoulder started to stiffen up, so Webb relented. He said he expects to make his next start.

He wants to be out there for his teammates, even if they’re not the group anyone expected to play behind him. With so many veterans out of the lineup, and third baseman Matt Chapman out for the rest of the season after having sports hernia surgery, it’s more important that the veterans who remain embrace active leadership roles.

“We’ve got some good dudes here that do things well,” Webb said. “I really wish Chappy was here. He’s helped me a ton, just watching him work every day. … If you can set the tone with how you go about your business every day, not just the days you (pitch) but also how you do your work and how you treat people here, I think that’s a big thing.”

Hill’s hitting streak was unofficially snapped after he went 0 for 3, but his bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the fourth inning gave the Giants a lead that they did not relinquish. More than two dozen friends and family traveled from Ohio and waved a Marietta College flag for each of his plate appearances. It’s been a remarkable journey for the 27-year-old outfielder, who hit .433 as a college senior but wasn’t considered a draft prospect and didn’t receive a spot to play in the MLB Draft League in 2022.

It was only after drafted players left the league that Hill received an invitation to play from the West Virginia Black Bears. He hit .391 in 37 games, won the league batting title and received an offer to play for the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things in the independent Frontier League. He had reported to the team’s training camp and was preparing to play when he received the news: The San Francisco Giants had purchased his contract for $15,000.

San Francisco Giants left fielder Turner Hill bats against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 15, 2026.

In his MLB debut, Turner Hill drove in the go-ahead run in the fourth inning. (Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images via Reuters Connect)

The Giants scout who identified Hill wasn’t an amateur area scout or a pro scout who happened to see him play. It was Farhan Zaidi, who was the Giants’ president of baseball operations in 2022. Amid his vast responsibilities running all the departments in the Giants’ front office, Zaidi still found the time to pore over MLB Draft League statistics and look for flecks of gold. Going back to his first Rule 5 pick with the Giants, Drew Ferguson, Zaidi displayed a fondness for scooping up a specific type: Get hitters with notably low strikeout rates and a high on-base percentage, traits that tend to stabilize at any level, and see if they can figure out the rest.

With a .463 on-base percentage for the Black Bears, Turner fit the bill. And this season, after a change in approach that allowed him to access a bit more gap power, he started to do the rest.

Maybe Hill isn’t a prospect. But he was hitting .353 at Sacramento. The Giants would have damaged their reputation among their minor-league players if they didn’t pay heed to those numbers and promote him. Especially amid a season when there’s nothing left to lose.

“The sac fly was great, but he’s probably going to need to make sure he works above the baseball at times and doesn’t lift anything,” Vitello said. “But that’s kind of related to (doing) a really good job of keeping his hands back. … To come up in that situation with the bases loaded and the crowd’s cheering and it’s his second at-bat, to keep his heart rate to where it looked like he was under control, I thought was pretty impressive.”

Hill said he would have liked to collect his first hit. But helping to set up Webb for a victory was a pretty good consolation prize. On so many nights over the past five years, it’s been a feat beyond anyone’s ken in a Giants uniform.

“It was everything I expected,” Hill said. “You know, the nerves, the excitement, everything you can imagine.”

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Tears, Larry David quips and more: Standout moments from Naismith Hall of Fame speeches

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August 16, 2026

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On Saturday, eight individuals and one team achieved basketball immortality. The 2026 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class featured Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, Chamique Holdsclaw, the USA women’s 1996 Olympic gold medal squad, Amar’e Stoudemire, Mike D’Antoni (coach, contributor), Mark Few (coach), Doc Rivers and Joey Crawford (referee). Each of their induction stories was as distinct as the roles they played to grow the game.

Here are some of the best moments from Saturday’s induction ceremony.

Chamique Holdsclaw

Draft: 1999 first-round pick (No. 1 pick by Washington Mystics)

Career highlights: Six-time WNBA All-Star, led Tennessee to three straight NCAA titles (1996-98), two-time College Player of the Year, 1999 WNBA Rookie of the Year, 2002 WNBA scoring champion, 2000 Olympic gold medalist

From the speech: Having grown up in New York, Holdsclaw shared memories of the support she received from guys she shared courts with, including a fellow future basketball All-Star from her stomping grounds.

“If anyone tries to hurt her, I’ma knock y’all out,” she recalled Metta Sandiford-Artest, then known as Ron Artest, saying back in their days playing together. Throughout her speech, she thanked her wife, family and friends for supporting her through the ups and downs of her legendary career, which she says was influenced by fellow New Yorker Lamar Odom.

Mike D’Antoni

NBA coaching career span: First season 1997-98; final season 2020-21

Career highlights: Two-time NBA Coach of the Year (2005, 2017), ranks No. 22 in NBA history with 672 wins as head coach, assistant coach for the gold medal-winning 2012 USA Olympic team, named one of the 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors in 2008

From the speech: D’Antoni deferred his success to the family, friends, players and executives who trusted his vision for changing basketball. Throughout his career, D’Antoni wanted to increase pace and possessions while prioritizing long-range shooting. Over the decades, his vision helped the likes of Stoudemire, Steve Nash and James Harden establish era-defining legacies. But even when recognizing the opportunities he gave players such as Jeremy Lin, D’Antoni still passed the rock when it came to claiming credit for Linsanity.

“Jeremy — he was on a 10-day contract and close to being released, but my assistants kept telling me, ‘Just give him a chance.’ Boy, were they right,” he said. “Jeremy gave New York, and all of us, the ride of our lives.”

4 Amazing Facts About the Basketball Hall of Fame 2026 Class

Doc Rivers

Coaching career span: 1999-2026

Career highlights: Sixth in NBA history with 1,180 wins as head coach, ranks No. 4 all-time with 114 career playoff wins, led Boston Celtics to two NBA Finals appearances (2010, 2008), won 2008 NBA title, NBA Coach of the Year in 2000, named among 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA history

From the speech: Welcomed by Boston’s big three of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, Rivers started his speech lost for words, joking that his patented voice was “already raspy” after “coaching robbed it from me.” He reflected on growing up in Maywood, Ill., and attending Proviso East High, which produced 12 NBA players. Despite enough accolades to make anyone proud, Rivers recalled that beating his brother Grady was his proudest moment as a hooper. An emotional Rivers said his older brother was the first person he called after learning of his Hall of Fame nod.

Elena Delle Donne

WNBA career span: 2013 first-round pick (No. 2 pick by Chicago Sky)

Career highlights: Two-time WNBA MVP (2019, 2015), led Mystics to first WNBA title (2019), first WNBA player with 50/40/90 season, seven-time WNBA All-Star, four-time All-WNBA First Team, 2013 WNBA Rookie of the Year, 2016 Olympic gold medalist with Team USA

From the speech: One of the best shooters in WNBA history, Delle Donne started her speech by noting the presence of comedian Larry David and said she hoped to do a “prettay, prettay” good job. Throughout, Delle Donne shared gratitude for the support of her wife, Amanda; Sylvia Fowles, who was the first veteran to help her while she adjusted to the pros; and her father, who introduced her to basketball drills using a ladder (which they named Oscar) that mimicked defenders and showed how to use an oven mitt to hone her shooting follow-through.

Candace Parker

WNBA draft: 2008 first-round pick (No. 1 by Los Angeles Sparks)

Career highlights: Three-time WNBA champion, two-time WNBA MVP, 2016 WNBA Finals MVP, 2020 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, seven-time WNBA All-Star and All-WNBA First Team selection, two-time Olympic gold medalist.

From the speech: An emotional Parker passed a basketball throughout her speech, dishing to her brother, Anthony, Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade and Cheryl Miller. Her gratitude extended to her children, former teammates and coaches who helped her establish one of basketball’s most notable careers, highlighted by her being the only WNBA player to win MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same year. While walking into hoops heaven, Parker talked to a basketball about the places they’ve journeyed together.

“We did a lot together. We dunked on UConn at UConn. We had our own signature shoe. We were the first woman to grace the cover of 2K. We won at every level for every team we ever played for. And now, we stand on the podium as first-ballot Hall of Famers.”

Amar’e Stoudemire

NBA Draft: 2002 first-round pick (No. 9 pick by Phoenix Suns)

Career highlights: Six-time NBA All-Star, five-time All-NBA selection, 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year.

From the speech: Stoudemire thanked God and looked back on a childhood in which he routinely obeyed his mother as he sought a basketball career to lift his family out of poverty. It started in Lake Worth, Fla., where he and his father watched a game starring his cousin that fueled his hoops fire. Around that time, the Orlando Magic established a junior program for developing players that helped Stoudemire, whose nickname was STAT (“Standing Tall And Talented”), establish himself as one of the best forwards of his era and best dunkers in NBA history.

1996 women’s national team

Highlights: Went 8-0 (winning by an average of 28.6 points per game), helped establish the launch of the WNBA, now in its 30th season.

From the speech: Hall of Famers Teresa Edwards, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Rebecca Lobo and coach Tara VanDerveer reflected on the value of helping establish women’s basketball by winning gold on U.S. soil. To this day, Edwards says playing for the 1996 squad was like nothing else she has experienced, calling it “the greatest team I’ve ever played on.”

“I would put us up against anyone,” she said.

VanDerveer said the 1996 squad occasionally watches other national teams and quips in group chats about being able to beat them, a testament to the “30-year friendships” established by their historic run.

“It’s the highest honor, I believe, of our careers,” Leslie said. “We’re so thankful that the WNBA, the late, great David Stern, Adam Silver understood we had an opportunity for women’s professional basketball to thrive here in our country, and we’re so proud of where we are today.”

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Joey Logano wins NASCAR Cup race at Richmond, and guess who’s back, back again

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August 16, 2026

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RICHMOND, Va. — Over the last two months, the question about Joey Logano’s NASCAR season has suddenly gone from “Will he miss the Chase?” to “Can he win the championship?”

The way Logano looked at Richmond Raceway, it would seem foolish to count him out.

Logano’s remarkable midseason turnaround continued in a major way on Saturday night as the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion put an exclamation mark on his resurgence, winning the race and skyrocketing to ninth in the points standings.

How much of a rise is that? Just six races ago at Sonoma Raceway, Logano was 20th in points. At the time, it seemed likely Logano wouldn’t even make the 16-driver postseason field in NASCAR’s first year after scrapping the old playoff format, in which Logano won all three of his Cup titles.

Well, he’s back. And now he has two more regular season races to move up the standings even further.

“Don’t let the boys get hot!” he said on the frontstretch after the race. “We’re pretty strong right now.”

That’s an understatement, particularly over the last four races. Logano won the North Wilkesboro Speedway short track race on July 19, then backed it up with a third-place finish in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.

Logano finished 14th last week at Iowa, but only because his team had a disastrous pit stop that cost him what seemed like a sure top-five finish (if not the win). Now Logano is back in victory lane again, and rounding into form just in time.

Of his five top-five finishes this season, three have come in the last four races. Now there’s virtually no mathematical chance Logano will miss the Chase field; he’s 142 points ahead of the cutoff line with two races remaining. The bigger question is how far he can rise.

“We’re getting the points we need,” Logano said.

Logano’s Team Penske teammates were also strong on a short track once again, with Austin Cindric getting a crucial third-place finish to boost his Chase hopes, Ryan Blaney leading 88 laps before fading to 13th, and affiliate car Josh Berry getting back-to-back top-10 finishes.

Cindric had perhaps the overall performance of the night. He had a highly disappointing race at Iowa last week and was just 29 points above the cutoff line entering Richmond.

But his third-place finish at Richmond, combined with a pair of fourth-place stage results, boosted him to 57 points above the cut with two races remaining.

“This was the kick in the a— this team needed, man,” Cindric said.

Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe was disappointed after losing to Logano by 0.39 seconds. Briscoe had a three-second lead at one point, then started losing his brakes and allowed Logano to catch him just before the final green-flag pit stop.

Briscoe hounded Logano in traffic over the waning laps, but it wasn’t enough. And though you’d think a second-place finish and 171 laps led might come as a nice result for a driver who had never led a lap at Richmond or finished in the top 10 in nine previous starts, he was disappointed.

“It’s weird to be mad running second here,” Briscoe said. “Just to be that close and not get it done is still frustrating. Just wasn’t able to seal the deal there at the end.”

Meanwhile, the other big winner of the night was Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen, who secured a 14th-place finish to leave Richmond with a 50-point advantage over Ryan Preece for the final Chase spot.

Preece, a short track ace, was expected to make up ground at Richmond. Instead, he lost ground with a disappointing 17th-place finish and heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in dire need of some major points before the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway in two weeks.

Austin Dillon, who had won the previous two Richmond races, was a surprising non-factor on Saturday night and finished 19th.

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Lionel Messi misses penalty as Nashville strengthens MLS lead with win over Inter Miami

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August 16, 2026

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Nashville strengthened its push for the Supporters’ Shield and extended its lead to 5 points over Inter Miami on a night Lionel Messi again failed to convert a penalty.

Andy Nájar, Hany Mukhtar (two) and Sam Surridge were on target in a 4-1 home win for Nashville, which regained control of the game after Inter Miami had pulled the score level just before halftime.

It was a significant win for Nashville, but Messi was central to the storyline as he made his first MLS start since the World Cup and since the death of his father, Jorge, at age 68.

Earlier this week, Messi acknowledged he was unsure whether he would continue playing “for much longer,” adding significance to his appearance in a game between the league’s top sides.

The day started with Nashville as No. 1 and Inter Miami as No. 2 in the Supporters’ Shield and Eastern Conference standings. Nashville was a slight favorite at kickoff, but Miami fielded a stellar starting lineup that included Sergio Reguilón, Casemiro, Rodrigo De Paul, Luis Suárez and Messi.

It was a difficult night for Messi, and his poor recent record from the penalty spot continued while Nashville produced a superb team performance to record a memorable win.

Nashville deservedly took the lead through Nájar’s 17th-minute header, with Elias Saad producing a superb delivery to the far post.

Against the run of play, Miami was given a route back into the game when Suárez was brought down inside the area by Jeisson Palacios.

Messi missed two penalties at the World Cup for Argentina but stepped forward to take the spot kick in the 23rd minute.

He saw his latest effort saved by Brian Schwake as the goalkeeper dived to his right. It was an unconvincing kick from Messi, who opted for a slight pause in his run-up before directing the ball toward goal, allowing the Nashville goalkeeper to make a save.

Reguilón’s follow-up found the net, but his goal was ruled out for encroachment into the box.

In first-half stoppage time, Miami did get itself level — and Messi was the architect.

The penalty miss appeared to motivate him, and he produced the assist by dropping into a pocket of space before picking out Telasco Segovia with a lovely forward pass. Segovia produced a superb spin before firing into the far corner.

Messi had a shot saved at the beginning of the second half, but Palacios then sparked a move from one side of the pitch to the other as Nashville restored its lead in the 49th minute and seized control of the game.

Saad produced a superb short pass to find Mukhtar in the area, and he finished perfectly, firing across goal.

Nashville then moved two goals clear in the 56th minute when Cristian Espinoza sent a pass across toward the near post and Surridge converted nonchalantly with a beautiful heel flick.

Messi was left complaining about a foul he believed should have been awarded at the other end of the pitch in the buildup to the goal. He was shown a yellow card for his continued protests.

It was a difficult night for Miami, and its misery deepened when goalkeeper Rocco Ríos Novo made a mistake. He came racing out of goal, midway into his own half, in an attempt to clear the danger after a goal kick from Schwake was sent high into the Miami half.

The Miami goalkeeper misjudged the ball, and Mukhtar showed composure to slot home his second and Nashville’s fourth.

In the dying stages of the game, Messi hit each post in quick succession and then had a goal ruled out for offside before the full-time whistle sounded.

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