BALTIMORE -- Giants starter Landen Roupp worked into 3-0 counts against Orioles slugger Pete Alonso and lived to tell about it.
The O’s hurlers facing Casey Schmitt weren’t as fortunate.
Roupp allowed one run over six innings to rebound from one of the roughest starts of his career and Schmitt doubled three times, scored twice and drove in a run, as the Giants earned a 6-3 victory over the Orioles on Friday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
“I think Schmitty was the igniter for us tonight,” said San Francisco manager Tony Vitello of the DH, who is slashing .333/.412/.500 in his first 30 at-bats.
Roupp (2-1) allowed five hits and two walks while striking out four, one start after yielding a career-worst seven runs (five earned) in a 9-0 home loss to the Mets on April 4.
He retired new Orioles slugger Alonso three times with men aboard and two outs -- twice after working into 3-0 counts -- to strand four runners across those frames.
“To be honest, I didn’t feel that great,” Roupp said. “Just battled.”
Schmitt became the first San Francisco player to hit three two-baggers in a game since Donovan Solano on July 30, 2020. And his third double sparked a three-run seventh inning that gave Roupp and his bullpen some needed insurance.
Jung Hoo Lee and Willy Adames each homered, doubled and drove in two, with Adames’ two-bagger his sixth in four games.
And Heliot Ramos added an RBI single among the Giants’ nine hits against O’s starter Shane Baz (0-1) as San Francisco successfully kicked off its first extended road trip of the season by scoring five or more runs for a third straight contest.
“It’s been awesome,” Schmitt said of a lineup that entered Friday with an MLB-low five homers. “Just hitting with guys in scoring position, and just really, it seems like they’re seeing the ball so much better now.”
Keaton Winn, JT Brubaker and Matt Gage bridged the seventh and eighth, and Blade Tidwell completed the ninth -- allowing a late two-run shot to Gunnar Henderson -- for San Francisco’s third win in four road games.
Roupp required only 93 pitches to complete six innings, yet he threw only 54 of those pitches for strikes. He fought through some of the worst of his command issues against the five-time All-Star Alonso, who has struggled in his first weeks with his new club.
With a runner on second in the first inning, Roupp followed three consecutive balls to Alonso with three straight sinkers. The first two caught the knees; Alonso stood frozen watching the third pound the heart of the zone.
Two frames later with men on second and third, Roupp fooled Alonso into flailing at a 1-2 curveball that dropped almost into the dirt. And in the fifth, he fooled Alonso again on a curveball, this one a 3-1 offering chopped into the ground for a routine putout.
“Just compete,” Roupp said of his approach in those at-bats. “Really was just trying to get some weak contact there. Ended up striking him out two times. I think he had to have just been sitting curveball with me tonight. Because he never swung at the sinker at all.”