ARLINGTON, Texas -- Bob Melvin lit up before Friday's game when a reporter gave him a platform to talk about Ryan Walker. The second-year reliever is tied for second in the majors in appearances and has a 2.81 ERA, and the Giants manager gushed about the way he has handled different roles and both left-handed and right-handed hitters.
"I mean, they're potential All-Star numbers if you're looking at relievers, right?" he said. "That's how good he has been for us."
It was a speech that Melvin did not anticipate giving Friday, but he was clearly ready to do it at some point. The All-Star Game is fast approaching, and Melvin will not be shy about lobbying for his players, both publicly and privately.
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For as good as he has been, Walker is a long shot. The All-Star bullpen is generally filled with closers and then filled out with lockdown relievers from teams that need their one representative. But Melvin plans to spend part of the next month promoting some of his better players anyway.
The hope is that multiple Giants return to Globe Life Field next month to play in this year's game. But one of the stars of Friday's 5-2 win over the Texas Rangers might not need much public support.
Logan Webb threw seven strong against the reigning champs, allowing two runs in the fifth but otherwise completely dominating. Last year's innings leader has completed at least seven of them in eight of his 14 starts, and with Friday's length, he once again jumped back atop MLB's leaderboard.
He's also eighth in the league in ERA, fourth in FIP and third in groundball rate, basically replicating last year's success, which earned him a second-place finish in the Cy Young race.
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After the win, Webb said he's trying not to think much about any festivities. But it is something he'd like to check off the bucket list at some point.
"Whatever happens, happens. I've thought I had good chances in the past and I didn't make it," he said. "I obviously would love to do it, but I'm not the one that makes the decision. It would be awesome. I do have a lot of family, a lot from here in the Dallas area and some in Houston, so it would be awesome. You've seen my family at games -- there would probably be a big crowd of them.
"But it's still kind of a ways away. I'll just keep throwing and hopefully one day (make it)."
The day should have come last year, when Webb was among the league's better pitchers in the first half. When the National League needed injury replacements, both Alex Cobb and Webb were on the list, but Webb was deemed ineligible because he was lined up to pitch on the final Sunday of the first half, which would keep him from being an option in the following Tuesday's All-Star Game.
Webb responded to that decision by shutting out the Colorado Rockies in that final first-half start.
The Giants still have five weeks of baseball until the end of the first half, and there's so much uncertainty in their rotation that there's no point in mapping things out. Their focus right now isn't on the big picture, anyway.
After a six-game losing streak, they have righted the ship with back-to-back wins, hitting three homers in each of them. On Friday, it was Wilmer Flores with a pair and Michael Conforto with a two-run blast that made a winner of Webb. It was crisp baseball all the way around, which isn't always the case behind the staff ace.
"We really have a lot of guys with the ability to hit some home runs," Melvin said. "We've gone in some stretches where we haven't. We've probably played our best baseball when we have hit some home runs. It makes a big difference when you can put a couple of runs on the board in a big game like that. Conforto's homer was huge and Wilmer got us there with it."
Flores now has three homers in his last two games after hitting just one over his first 50 appearances. It's been a very slow start, but he's beginning to look like the guy who carried the Giants for long stretches in the second half last season. And regardless of what happens for Webb over the next month, Flores will always have bragging rights.
"He's just a professional hitter and pitchers that have faced him would probably say the exact same thing," Webb said, smiling. "He lets me know about the one time I faced him and he went 3-for-3 off me. That was my debut. That was fun."
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