Giants pitcher Alex Cobb’s second career shutout was worth the wait

SAN FRANCISCO — Alex Cobb couldn’t remember every detail from his last major league shutout.

Couldn’t remember that he struck out Yoenis Céspedes for the final out. Or that he held the A’s to four hits. Or that Evan Longoria knocked in a run for him as a crowd of 11,613 hardy souls at Tropicana Field watched their Rays take a 5-0 victory to push them 15 games over .500. Give Cobb a minute and he might have remembered that Barack Obama was president at the time.

A mind can only retain so much. A decade of fresher memories will push out some of the old ones. But among all the human emotions, fear tends to leave the deepest imprint. So ask Cobb what he remembered most about his shutout as an up-and-coming 24-year-old in 2012 and the first thing he’ll mention is the 12-hit, eight-run start that preceded it.

“I remember I got destroyed the game before that in (Anaheim) and I was sweating whether I was going to get sent down or not,” Cobb said Monday night. “Fortunately, I had a good outing. I didn’t realize that was the last one.”

Cobb reached back for more than memories Monday night. He filled up the strike zone with splitters and two-seamers against a struggling St. Louis Cardinals lineup. The pitches were nasty enough to generate groundballs. They weren’t nasty enough to generate swings and misses. And because the Giants infield scooped up everything behind him, Cobb was able to generate enough efficient outs — 18 of them on the ground when you include a double play he started — to go the distance.

The 35-year-old right-hander walked off the mound looking more relieved than rejoicing after he struck out Tyler O’Neill to finish off a six-hitter with four strikeouts in the Giants’ 4-0 victory Monday night. Cobb became the first Giants pitcher to throw a shutout since Anthony DeSclafani did it twice in 2021. It was Cobb’s fifth career complete game and his second shutout. It came almost 11 years after his first one.

“Need to do better,” he said, pausing to let the sarcasm land.

Alex Cobb finishes off a masterpiece for the @SFGiants. pic.twitter.com/1nXrqi8ts8

— MLB (@MLB) April 25, 2023

At 35 years, 199 days, Cobb became the oldest Giant to throw a shutout since 36-year-old Mark Gardner in 1998. The span between Cobb’s first and second shutouts (10 years, 244 days) ranks as the third longest by a major league pitcher since at least 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

When you spend a decade in the big leagues, you accumulate more than a cerebral cortex stuffed with memories. You learn a few tricks along the way. You gain perspective. You figure out how to pace yourself and how to outflank your opponent in the batter’s box. So this season has provided Cobb with both a special challenge and a special opportunity. He’s adapting to the new pitch clock just like everyone else. Because veteran players are so accustomed to doing things one way, because they’ve spent years winding their internal clocks to the game’s rhythms, you might assume that they would be having a harder time adapting to the rule changes.

But they don’t call them wily veterans for nothing. Hardly a day went by in spring training when Cobb wasn’t leading clubhouse discussions on how Giants pitchers could bend the rules to their advantage. A hitter spent his only timeout in an at-bat? Quick-pitch them as soon as they look up. Seconds ticking down on you? Call for a new baseball.

During Cobb’s start last week in Miami, there was a fascinating scene of cat-and-mouse. Cobb gave up a two-out single to speedy Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the third inning and immediately picked over to first base. Then he picked over again. Already, he’d gone against the conventional grain. A pitcher gets to disengage the rubber twice in a plate appearance. If they disengage a third time, they’re charged with a balk unless their pickoff attempt results in an out. The league’s thinking seemed to evolve to this: don’t pick over a second time because then you’re unarmed.

So what did Cobb do? He threw over a third time. Chisholm dived back to first base safely, so the play resulted in a balk. But the way Cobb viewed it, Chisholm would’ve had second base stolen anyway. He figured his best chance was to catch a very confident baserunner in a moment of overconfidence. Didn’t work that time. Might work next time.

But the pitch clock will always be tough on a pitcher attempting to see through a complete game. There are no chances to pace the grass behind the mound, to wipe a sweaty brow, to take a deep breath to collect yourself. Those moments mean everything to a 30-something right-hander who entered the ninth inning having thrown 93 pitches.

“It’s exhausting to be working that deep into the game,” Cobb said. “But when you get that boost of confidence and adrenaline, knowing you have the trust of your team, you can dig a little deeper.”

It will be up to the Giants rotation to keep working deeper. Cobb’s complete game came two days after Logan Webb completed seven innings for the first time while picking up his first victory of the season. Those two starts provided the backbone as the Giants glued together their first winning streak of the season. And because the sum of activity in the Giants bullpen was for Camilo Doval to throw a few plyo balls as part of his pre-mound routine, manager Gabe Kapler will have his full complement to be able to play matchups against the Cardinals on Tuesday. Right-handed reliever John Brebbia, who started 10 games as an opener last season, will take the mound with Jakob Junis and Sean Manaea fully rested to take down portions of the game.

But as Cobb views it, the most valuable benefits from a rotation working deep into games won’t be felt the following day.

“For everything to work, it starts with us,” Cobb said. “(The goal is) to keep the bullpen fresh not just in May, June or July but in August and September. To make a push, we’ll need those guys healthy and ready to go. … It sets you up not just for now but for success later on in the season, too.

“We’re all going to be pushing each other. I know Webby won’t be happy if I’m the only one with a CG this year. He’ll be trying to one-up me the next outing.”

Cobb’s next outing will come at 7,300 feet. He’s penciled in to start Sunday against the Padres in Mexico City at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú, which sits 2,000 feet higher than Denver’s Coors Field. So he’ll be seeking more groundballs on his assortment of sinkers and splitters.

There’s growing confidence that the Giants will be able to convert those grounders into outs — especially when they’re hit to third base.

Cobb’s shutout might have provided the game’s headline, and the long-awaited debut of outfielder Mitch Haniger might have provided the pregame news, but otherwise, this was an evening when J.D. Davis truly arrived in San Francisco.

Davis had one of those games that will endear a player within the consciousness of a fan base. He combined an aggressive charge and backhanded pickup with a quarterback’s arm strength at third base to make an inning-ending play with the bases loaded in the fifth. Then he popped a three-run home run moments after Haniger’s sacrifice fly opened the scoring in the seventh.

“J.D. Davis has been playing Gold Glove-caliber defense, nothing short of that,” said Kapler, adding that David Villar has looked more and more comfortable at second base.

Davis showed off his arm strength on the play to end the fifth. He’s worked to improve his lateral reaction time by being more upright and less spread out in his ready position. And as his physical skills have improved, so has his confidence to trust his intuition. Earlier in the fifth, Davis ranged to his left to field Paul DeJong’s grounder and looked for the force at second base. When he saw that Brendan Donovan was already sliding safely into the base, he was able to make an adjustment on the run. He had just enough on his throw to record the out at first base.

He acknowledged that his inning-ending play in the fifth on Lars Nootbaar was one he probably wouldn’t have made in past seasons with the New York Mets. He would have taken two steps to throw instead of one.

What a play, J.D. 👏 pic.twitter.com/qz1QXko0BF

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 25, 2023

“We hammered that in the offseason to have a quick release,” said Davis, who highlighted his work with bench coach Kai Correa. “I already have a strong arm. There’s no sense taking an extra step. An 80 percent throw for me is better than most guys. That’s not me being cocky. It’s just the velocity I throw at. Kai reiterates that. It’s, ‘Get a fast exchange and keep my feet under me.’”

The Giants had more of a complete lineup to steady them on Monday as Haniger (oblique) and Austin Slater (hamstring, elbow) were activated off the injured list and made their season debuts. To clear space, outfielder Brett Wisely was optioned and DH Darin Ruf was placed on the IL with wrist inflammation.

Slater lined singles to right field in each of his first two at-bats and the Giants were able to execute a familiar line change from there. Joc Pederson pinch-hit for Slater in the seventh and drew an intentional walk ahead of Davis’ homer. Haniger didn’t contribute much other than his sacrifice fly and he appeared to misplay a fly ball into a double in the eighth.

But Haniger made a productive out to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. And Davis followed with the shot that probably allowed Kapler the wiggle room to keep sending Cobb out there to finish the shutout.

The ballpark hasn’t been as loud all season as it was when Davis went deep.

“It was unbelievable to come through in that situation,” he said. “I know it’s a Monday night and there wasn’t the fully packed crowd. But it was loud tonight and to come up clutch in that situation, with that lineup they have over there … nobody wants to be in a one-run game.”

The only drawback for the Giants was a potentially important one. Their healthy roster stayed healthy for just six innings and Cobb’s batterymate didn’t make it to the last out of the game. Joey Bart hit a double to help set up the Giants’ four-run inning but he pulled into second base with a grimace. He’s been dealing with right groin tightness and aggravated the injury while running to second base. He’ll be reevaluated on Tuesday and if an IL stint is warranted, the Giants will have to get creative.

They no longer have Austin Wynns in the organization after he signed with the Dodgers. Gary Sánchez hasn’t impressed thus far for Triple-A Sacramento but the Giants might be forced to add him to the 40-man roster, which would mean sacrificing another player. Switch-hitting catcher Patrick Bailey, who has followed up an impressive spring by hitting .340 for Double-A Richmond, should at least merit consideration.

When Bart exited the game, he passed by Cobb in the dugout on his way to the trainer’s room.

“Don’t stop,” Bart told him. “This is your game. Leave everything out there.”

“He’s easily one of the most underrated pitchers in the game,” Bart said at his locker after the win. “I joke with him that he’s getting better as he’s getting older. It’s so much fun working with him. … I would have done anything to catch that last out for him.”

It would’ve been the first shutout Bart caught in the big leagues, too. And you never forget the details of your first shutout. Not until a decade goes by, anyway.

(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)