CHICAGO -- Landen Roupp found himself with his back against the wall not once, but twice, on Friday night. Fortunately for the Giants, the 26-year-old right-hander didn’t break either time.
Roupp showed his mettle by working out of a pair of bases-loaded jams, and Patrick Bailey delivered a go-ahead, two-run triple to lift the Giants to a 3-1 series-opening win over the struggling White Sox at Rate Field.
San Francisco (45-37) wasn’t able to capitalize on the soft pocket of its schedule earlier this week after being swept by the sub-.500 Marlins at home, but it managed to do enough to get past the White Sox (26-56) and take the first game of its 10-game road trip through Chicago, Phoenix and West Sacramento.
“A big win for us getting on this road trip,” Bailey said. “It’s a grindy win. I still think there’s a lot of stuff we can improve on and do better, but at the end of the day, a win is a win.”
Chicago took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning after Chase Meidroth and Andrew Benintendi ripped back-to-back singles off Roupp, and shortstop Willy Adames allowed Miguel Vargas’ 103.2 mph liner to deflect off his glove and bounce into left field for an error.
Heliot Ramos quickly corralled the ball and threw back to the infield, but Adames didn’t position himself to receive the cut-off throw, which permitted Meidroth to score from second. Still, Roupp managed to work around traffic and limit the damage the rest of the way.
The White Sox loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but Roupp coaxed a 6-4-3 double play from No. 9 hitter Michael A. Taylor on a first-pitch sinker to end the inning. He was tested again in the fifth, when Chicago loaded the bases for the second consecutive inning, but he struck out Kyle Teel swinging on a changeup and then used his trademark curveball to coax a popup from Lenyn Sosa to emerge unscathed.
“I think early on, I felt like I was at like 75% strikes, and then I kind of lost it,” Roupp said. “But just using the sinker when I needed to, to get the double play, and the curveball got me out of a big inning. Just attacking guys and trying to stay in the strike zone.”
Roupp yielded seven hits and walked two, but he ended up surrendering only one unearned run over 5 1/3 innings, lowering his ERA to 3.43 over 16 starts this year.
“I think if you ask him, he probably didn’t have his best stuff today,” Bailey said. “We were talking about it after the outing. I think the really good pitchers are able to keep you in games when you know you don’t have your best stuff. It was a really, really impressive start for him.”
“I think he’s a competitor,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He always has the sinker. He throws a sinker at the bottom of the knee for a strike, a lot of times it’s a ground ball. That’s what he relies on.”
Timely hitting has been an ongoing issue for the Giants, who batted only .147 (10-for-68) with runners in scoring position over their recent 3-6 homestand. They went 2-for-9 with RISP on Friday, but those two big knocks ended up holding up thanks to Roupp and San Francisco’s bullpen, which delivered 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
The Giants got on the board via Wilmer Flores' RBI double off Chicago starter Aaron Civale in the third and then went ahead for good thanks to Bailey’s clutch hit in the sixth.
Adames drew a leadoff walk and Christian Koss singled to set the table for Bailey, who sent a sinking liner to right field that got past a diving Ryan Noda and rolled all the way to the wall, allowing the Giants’ backstop to pull into third base for his second triple of the year.
“It usually takes somebody falling over for me to get a triple, but we’ll take it,” Bailey said.
Roupp has never thrown more than 107 1/3 innings in a single season since turning pro, but he’s already at 81 1/3 innings with just half of the regular season in the books. Melvin has acknowledged that the Giants may have to find a way to manage his workload in the second half, but Roupp said he’s determined to keep taking down as many innings as possible.
“I feel fine,” Roupp said. “The body feels good. Arm feels good. I’m just ready to keep going.”
“He might be one of the most competitive guys I’ve met,” Bailey said. “Even when he does well, he’s pissed off about something. It stresses me out. But he wants to be the best. He wants to give us a chance to win. He wants to go as long as he can. It’s really impressive, and it’s cool to see him get better because of that.”