Webb shows Cy Young form with 3 straight shutouts

Brandon Webb became the first pitcher since 1998 to toss three consecutive shutouts. AP

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ATLANTA -- These weren't the Padres that Brandon Webb made look like the Weak Sisters of the Lost Lumber on Friday night. These weren't the Pirates, either, or the Devil Rays or the Nationals. These were the Braves, a decent team with a damn good lineup, a team that averages almost five runs a game, third in the National League.

And Webb, the Diamondbacks' Southern-styled sinkerballer, mowed 'em down anyway. Held them to two wimpy hits. No runs. A major case of goofy-looking swings. That makes three consecutive shutouts for the Kentuckian now and, if you're counting (and everybody is), a gulp-inducing 42 straight scoreless innings.

So Bob Melvin, Arizona's manager, opened his postgame meeting with reporters like this:

Shrug of shoulders. Look of a man lost for words. Helpless smile.

"I don't know what to say," Melvin said after a beat or two.

That's where we are right now with Webb, the reigning Cy Young Award winner and, suddenly, a serious contender for this year's award. What can you say? Webb is so on right now, so absolutely in control of everything that he's throwing, that teams -- even good ones, like the Braves -- have almost no chance against him.

Webb threw 102 pitchers in Arizona's 4-0 victory. He threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 29 batters he faced. He walked one hitter. He went to only two three-ball counts. He threw, altogether, only 29 balls.

The two hits that the Braves managed were a bloop double to short left-center off the not-fat part of second baseman Kelly Johnson's bat and a dying, slicing bloopish single to right by right fielder Jeff Francoeur. Nobody hit a ball as far as a few feet from the warning track. Only two hitters -- catcher Brian McCann and left fielder Willie Harris -- managed fly balls that came even close.

There were a few line drives, sure. But they were at people, and they weren't run-threatening and, truth be told, most of them weren't hit all that hard. Webb was the boss of this game, nearly from the first pitch, and everybody at Turner Field knew it.

"I have a lot of friends playing for the Braves and other teams," said Arizona center fielder Chris Young, who had a pair of solo home runs in the win, "and every time that Webby is pitching, they don't even want to be in the lineup."

With the nine-inning shutout, Webb crashes the gates of one ritzy neighborhood. No one's thrown three straight shutouts since Roger Clemens did so for the Blue Jays in August 1998. And Webb now stands 18 innings short of breaking the major league record of 59 straight scoreless innings that the Dodgers' Orel Hershiser racked up in 1988.

Eighteen innings sure sounds like a lot of scoreless innings, and it is. But the way Webb has been throwing in his last five starts, the way he's dropping his sinker anywhere he wants it and bending his curve and taking a lot off his offspeed stuff, no one at Turner Field on Friday night would be surprised one bit if he pulled this off. That's how good he looks.

"Just two more shutouts. I should have that, no problem," Webb said with a laugh after the game, which he finished in a nifty two hours and 17 minutes. "In the back pocket."

Webb's run is remarkable in so many ways, not the least of which is its efficiency. In his previous two games, he threw 102 pitches (against the Dodgers) and 119 (against the Nationals). In his 42-inning scoreless run, he has walked only seven batters and given up only 24 hits. The six victims in the streak -- the Cubs, Marlins, Padres, Dodgers, Nationals and, now, the Braves -- have hit .161 against him.

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