Landen Roupp impresses in Giants’ 74th loss

Not the only highlight of tonight’s latest loss, but certainly the brightest.

I’m sorry to be such a partisan hack on debate night of all nights, but Matt Chapman is incredibly good at baseball. Is that a controversial position? You better believe it! He plays on a losing team! Still, he was one of the few bright spots in the Giants’ latest loss: 3-2 against the playoff-bound Milwaukee Brewers. I’m left to sit with the surprise I’m feeling thanks to Chapman’s consistent greatness.

Chapman’s 35th double of the season (his 59th extra base hit of 2024) came in the bottom of the 1st to cut an early 2-0 deficit in half. The first half of the game saw him show off his range, his arm, and his aura, as it managed to repel the overeager Tyler Fitzgerald on an infield popup in the bottom of the 3rd — not quite the same kind of play that created visual conflict between himself and Marco Luciano the other day, but… in the ballpark, and it was good to see Fitzgerald catch himself this time. Also, that’s Matt Chapman over there at the hot corner. Let him cook — or, in this case, catch!

Maybe I’m overdoing it, though. Maybe I’m just transferring residual excitement from years of watching Brandon Crawford be a wizard at shorstop to a guy at the hot corner who is defending as though he at least has a background in sorcery. But look, Chapman is a player who’s very easy to root for generally and to latch onto specifically if you’re trying to find reasons to separate yourself from the general glumness of the roster. He did popup in the 9th inning though after Heliot Ramos legged out an infield hit to give the Giants a chance at a comeback — but that’s baseball, right?

Tonight was a tidy 127 minute contest that was close in score but never in vibes. Mike Yastrzemski led off again and hit his 14th home run of the season in the bottom of the 6th. The first five hitters in the order combined to go 4-for-20 with a homer, 2 runs scored, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts courtesy of a golden sombrero worn by Michael Conforto.

The Brewers’ Aaron Civale was in control for most of the night, which was a real shame given that the Giants had just seen him a couple of weeks ago — you’d hope that familiarity would’ve benefited them even if he pitched 7 shutout innings last time — and that he’s pitched significantly worse on the road this season (a 6.63 ERA away vs. 3.30 at home).

The Milwaukee Brewers have a lot of good players and they were all good tonight. 20-year old Jackson Chourio has really turned his season around offensively since the All-Star break and even turned things around in tonight’s game. Chapman’s 1st inning double was stung and caused some trouble for the rookie:

But in the very next inning, he made this catch on a Grant McCray liner:

He’s a quick study! In the 8th, he robbed Mike Yastrzemski of a hit:

“What the Brewers are, the Giants aspire to be,” said Mike Krukow in the postgame wrap. That’s been the case since 2019, but maybe one day they’ll get there. If it happens, let’s agree to pretend it wasn’t just random chance but the culmination of an actual plan.

The possible future of the San Francisco Giants was bunched together at the bottom of the lineup and against a superior foe really got taken to school. Tyler Fitzgerald, Patrick Bailey, Grant McCray, and Marco Luciano went 0-for-13 — but with just 2 strikeouts! The general quality of at bats probably wasn’t the poorest we’ve seen them, but it’s tough to muster much excitement with some of the contact (Chourio’s robbery of McCray notwithstanding).

But then there’s Landen Roupp, and maybe I’ll just commit the rest of the recap to him. In today’s series preview, I noted that he’d never thrown more than 67 pitches in a major league contest, and tonight wound up being his first major league start. Not a follower situation or a planned bullpen game. Just a “go get, Landen!” and Bob Melvin crossing his fingers. It worked.

He settled down after a 1st inning that saw his adrenaline juice his stuff beyond electric and into wild leading to a 2-0 deficit. What that looked like was eye-opening: a turbo sinker and a dynamic curveball. He’s got a 2900+ rpm spin on it with a 10-to-4 break. He had just 3 strikeouts so it wasn’t about getting a lot of swing and miss, it was about keeping guys off balance and inducing weaker contact. The curve was curving. The sinker was sinking. If you want to pencil in some Giants for next year’s team, leave room for Landen.

If I had to comp him I’d say the stuff had a vague resemblance to Alex Cobb’s, and I’ll admit that’s an imperfect one born mostly of somewhat similar arsenals. A turbo sinker really does tie the room together, though. Of the two Giants birthdays today, Landen Roupp fared much better than did Marco Luciano — but Happy Birthday to both!

Tristan Beck gave up a run in 2 IP but his sinker looked like his sinker and he really excited last year in these 2-4 inning bursts. Mainly, though, it’s great to see him back and healthy after a scary medical issue.

It was also the final night of the current iteration of the City Connect jerseys, which I think you’d agree is basically a good thing, despite the Giants’ record in them (29-16, per Cole Kuiper). To this child, it will be like these jerseys never existed, but hopefully, he had a night he’ll never forget: