For second night in row, Giants' pitching, offense falter in loss to Mets

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Giants manager Tony Vitello, left, prepares to take the ball from pitcher Landen Roupp in the fifth inning of Saturday's game against the Mets at Oracle Park. Roupp allowed seven runs and seven hits in 4⅔ innings. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated Press)


Oracle Park isn't usually a place where teams come to warm their bats up, but the New York Mets found the San Francisco Giants' stadium to their liking for the second night in a row.

Landen Roupp, so unyielding against the Padres on Monday, was bedeviled by slow grounders and bouncers through holes early on Saturday, then gave up some harder contact in the fifth and all the while, his teammates scuffled at the plate in a 9-0 loss. The Giants also made three errors.

"I would just lump the two games together, they've done a really good job of swinging the bat," manager Tony Vitello said. "But you'd be hard pressed to find an inning where they scored where there wasn't potential for the inning to be over, or there wasn't a free pass in there. On defense, we could certainly do better."

Roupp usually thrives at Oracle Park, where he had a 2.56 ERA last year, and he opened up the game with four consecutive strikeouts. By the time he came out, though, the damage was significant: seven runs, six earned, in 4⅔ innings.

"I take weak hits as a win most of the time," Roupp said. "Obviously, that didn't help me tonight."
"I definitely think Landen threw better than what the boxscore says," Vitello said.

Third baseman Matt Chapman and first baseman Jerar Encarnacion made errors on the same play in the second, contributing to the Mets' three-run inning, and in the sixth, New York rapped four singles off Roupp, including Mark Vientos' third hit, an RBI single.

That's when Vitello went to get Roupp, replacing him with lefty Ryan Borucki to face lefty Jared Young. The Mets countered with right-handed-hitting Tyrone Taylor, who clocked a two-run homer to center, the second homer in a week by a New York right-hander off Borucki after Aaron Judge got him the previous Saturday in the opening series.

"The one thing he did do was at least be efficient for us and recorded more than three outs," Vitello said of Borucki, adding that the scenario had been drawn up that way with Juan Soto out of the Mets' lineup with a calf injury. "All it was tonight was a two-strike pitch that got floated.

"I feel like I'm accurate in saying their big swings have come with two strikes on pitches that that aren't thrown the way that they need to be, or thrown with conviction."

The Giants are a team of contrasts in the early going. In their three wins, they've scored 19 runs on 35 hits. In their six losses, they've scored five runs and collected 25 hits, including three Saturday. It's so early, not even double-digits into games, but much of the team is batting under .210 including Chapman, Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee, Harrison Bader and Patrick Bailey.

"On the either-or (offense),like anything, I think you're fooling yourself if you're saying it's just one thing," Vitello said, "but definitely one of those things is emotional - nine innings is a long time, long time, there are a lot of ups and downs that can happen. And obviously the best teams are the ones that in my opinion treat all of them the same and are highly competitive in each one and regardless of the ups and downs of the scoreboard, get themselves in a good spot at the end of the game."

Mets starter Clay Holmes didn't help. He was outstanding, allowing three hits and walking two in seven scoreless innings. He struck out four.

The Mets had 12 hits after totaling 15 the night before. New York entered Friday's game having stranded 59 runners and batting .155 with runners in scoring position, but they're 11-for-25 over the past two days.

"The last two days have looked a little too eerily similar," Vitello said. "When you're ahead in the count, as a hitter, it certainly favors you, and good teams are going to capitalize on mistakes."

Encarnacion, at first base with Casey Schmitt still out with back tightness, had a difficult time of it in the field Saturday, caught in between a few times and not looking sharp; he has played in the field only twice in the first nine games.

On the plus side, Giants infielder Christian Koss pitched a 1-2-3 ninth against the Mets. He has yet to allow a run in five career appearances spanning five innings.

San Francisco will try for the split of the four-game series Sunday with Logan Webb going up against Kodai Senga.


This article originally published at For second night in row, Giants' pitching, offense falter in loss to Mets.

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