San Francisco’s John Brebbia has a chance to make history on Wednesday night if the right-hander is selected by manager Gabe Kapler to start against the visiting Colorado Rockies.
The Giants (76-78), who have yet to name a starter for the second game of the three-game series, recorded their sixth straight victory over the Rockies (65-89) on Tuesday.
They received five solid innings from Logan Webb and home runs from Joc Pederson and J.D. Davis in a 5-2 win.
One win in the streak occurred last Thursday, when Brebbia (6-2, 2.81 ERA) led a parade of six Giants pitchers to the mound in a 3-0 triumph at Colorado.
The start was Brebbia’s eighth of the season, all of which have lasted just one inning and saw him face either three or four batters, allowing one hit and no runs in each.
If the 32-year-old were to make a ninth consecutive start without allowing a run, he would tie fellow “openers” Ryne Stanek in 2018 and Chad Green in 2019 for the longest streak of scoreless starts in major league history.
At the same time, Brebbia’s run of eight straight starts allowing one hit already is the longest in baseball history. In fact, it’s twice as long as the next-best — a string of four by Stanek in 2019.
The irony of Brebbia’s first-inning brilliance is that while he already matched his career win total with his sixth this season, none has come as a starter. Baseball rules require a starter to pitch a minimum of five innings in order to qualify for a potential win.
Yonathan Daza singled off Brebbia as the Rockies’ second batter in the bottom of the first in last week’s game. But the Giant retired the other three batters he faced to complete another scoreless inning, after which five relievers tag-teamed for eight innings of nine-hit ball for the 3-0 win.
Jharel Cotton was credited with the win after going 2 2/3 innings.
Giants pitchers allowed only singles — nine — in Tuesday’s win. They’ve limited the Rockies to two homers in the clubs’ five meetings in the last nine games.
“Homers are proven to help you win games,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “We have some projectable power, some raw power. We’ve talked about power potential for this group. And we haven’t realized the numbers we can get to.”
Rockies right-hander Jose Urena (3-7, 5.34 ERA) was a hard-luck loser in his matchup with Brebbia last week, allowing two runs in 5 2/3 innings. He gets a rematch Wednesday.
The 31-year-old has pitched well in his last three starts, surrendering just four runs in 17 innings. He has gone 2-2 with a 4.40 ERA in seven career head-to-heads with the Giants, including five as a starter.
He’ll see a Giants team that’s won seven of its past eight games to get within two games of .500.
“It’s kind of a soft-focus goal,” Kapler said of finishing with a winning record. “If we do the little things right along the way — we make enough pitches, we play good defense like we have been — that gives us our best chance of going better than .500.”
–Field Level Media
