{"id":657199,"date":"2026-04-01T18:48:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657199\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T18:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:48:51","slug":"tony-vitello-logan-webb-and-the-trust-that-keyed-a-giants-win-showed-his-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/657199\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Vitello, Logan Webb, and the trust that keyed a Giants win: \u2018Showed his guts\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the \u201cSection 415″ podcast <\/a>wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAN DIEGO \u2013 This is all a learning experience for Tony Vitello. The Giants\u2019 new manager will make mistakes. He\u2019ll hear criticisms. Some will be justified, others will come from doom-and-gloomers who like to criticize just to criticize.<\/p>\n

Conversely, when Vitello does the right thing, it ought to be noted, and he did the right thing Tuesday night at Petco Park.<\/p>\n

By doing nothing at all.<\/p>\n

Vitello could have made an aggressive decision in the third inning when ace Logan Webb was struggling to find a rhythm and get outs. Rather than pulling Webb, Vitello left him alone. He trusted that the right-hander would bounce back, and that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

Webb rewarded his manager by pitching brilliantly from there. The longer he remained in the game, the better he looked. He retired 10\u00a0batters in a row, and even though Webb\u2019s pitch count was up to 92 through five innings, Vitello left him in for the sixth \u2014 Webb responded with a 12-pitch inning.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how you win over players. That\u2019s how you win the clubhouse. That\u2019s how you win games.<\/p>\n

The Giants collected 16 hits, four by new leadoff hitter Willy Adames, and beat the Padres 9-3, and all signs pointed to Webb starting to find himself. He tossed a stinker on Opening Night, coughing up seven runs and nine hits to the Yankees and seemed destined for another disappointing start in the early innings Tuesday. The offense handed him a 4-0 lead, but he kept putting men on base and allowed three runs in the third, making the score 4-3.<\/p>\n

Then came the turnaround, thanks in part to the manager\u2019s patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuts,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cThat\u2019ll be one of my favorite outings of the year, even though you could take a step back and say it was one of the uglier ones, too, at times. It looked like he just dug down, got pissed, showed his guts. \u2026 That\u2019s our guy, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the sixth, Vitello\u2019s strategy was to go hitter by hitter. If anyone reached base, Webb would get pulled. But he induced three groundouts, and he walked off the field after 104 pitches. Vitello took several steps from the dugout to meet him and congratulate him on the gritty performance.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, the right move.<\/p>\n

Today<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

4 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday, Mar. 24<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to make all the right ones, and sometimes you make the wrong one, and you get a good outcome,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cBut we look at it from all angles, and I like the fact that we\u2019ve got people with a lot of input, and then ultimately, you\u2019ve just got to make a call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Webb told Vitello, \u201cThanks for trusting me.<\/p>\n

Now it can be told: Webb and his wife have been staying on nearby Coronado Island and happened to be at the right place and right time this week to check out the Navy SEALs\u2019 rigorous training program along the beach.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s game, Webb drew from the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty friggin\u2019 intense, what they\u2019re doing out there, and that thought popped into my head,\u201d Webb said. \u201cI was like, \u2018I got it a lot easier than those guys do \u2013 and figure it out.\u2019 I know it\u2019s kind of weird to say, but it\u2019s how I felt.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to suggest Webb\u2019s early issues have stemmed from a World Baseball Classic hangover. He was dominant for Team USA in two starts, winning them both on the way to the silver medal. The intensity, nerves, and adrenaline are all extremely high in the international tournament, akin to playoff baseball in October, though it\u2019s played in March. After the WBC, Webb returned to spring training and struggled in a Cactus League exhibition, which by comparison had zero stress, and never rebounded to his WBC form until he found a groove Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"TwoWilly Adames hit a leadoff home run and collected four hits on Tuesday.\u200b | Source: Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Webb insists the WBC had nothing to do with how he opened the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI signed up for that. It\u2019s what I chose to do,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah there\u2019s some different travel, different atmosphere. If I was tired, hypothetically, it\u2019s my own fault. I feel great right now. It\u2019s not that. I think I\u2019m just a little off. I\u2019m trying to figure it out as we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offense erupted for the first time this season. The Giants\u2019 nine runs were more than twice the combined output from their first four games. Adames homered to open the evening, the obvious choice as the leadoff hitter moving forward. Matt Chapman also homered, and Jung Hoo Lee had three hits, including two doubles.<\/p>\n

Designated hitter Rafael Devers, dealing with a hamstring issue, busted to first base for an infield single during a four-run sixth inning, an encouraging sign. Does it mean he could start playing first base? Vitello said the team will remain cautious to keep Devers fresh through the summer.<\/p>\n

Vitello will get ridiculed for his moves, like all managers. But he pressed the right buttons the past two nights, both wins, including how he handled Webb.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubconsciously or consciously,\u201d Vitello said, \u201che wouldn\u2019t let us take him out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,112,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-657199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-logan-webb","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116330953736270652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}