SF Giants power up to beat Phillies, 10-4

Tyler Fitzgerald nearly hit for the cycle, Mike Yastrzemski had three RBIs and Landen Roupp toughed out five innings for his first win.

Willy Adames and Tyler Fitzgerald hadn’t homered all season, while Fitzgerald had barely hit at all. That all changed during a six-run second inning that followed a nightmare beginning for Landon Roupp and gave the young righty his first win of the year.

The Giants 9-1-2 hitters did a lot Monday night, going 7-for-14 with three home runs, two doubles, and a triple, combining for six runs and seven RBIs. Roupp looked like he might not make it out of the first inning, but battled to qualify for a win and preserve the Giants bullpen.

The game did not begin auspiciously for the Giants. Willy Adames singled and then got picked off by starter Taijuan Walker. In the bottom of the inning, the Phillies rocked starter Landon Roupp, who let five of the first six batters he faced reach base, and sprinkled in a wild pitch. Trea Turner doubled in Bryson Stott, then Nick Castellanos singled in Turner.

With the bases loaded, Max Kepler got an RBI groundout to third, then Roupp struck out Alec Bohm to escape with a 3-0 deficit. Roupp got Bohm out with a steady diet of curve balls in what would have probably been the end of his outing had Bohm reached.

When a pitcher follows up his team’s rally by blanking the opposing team that’s called a “shutdow” inning.” Walker delivered the opposite of that in the top of the second — an “open up” inning?

Heliot Ramos hit his fifth double, LaMonte Wade, Jr. drew one of his two walks, and RBI machine Wilmer Flores followed with a single to score Ramos.

Walker induced a comebacker that should have been an inning-ending double play, but Walker threw the ball away. Taijuan Walker’s defense really let Taijuan Walker down! Perhaps distracted by his miscue, Walker hung an 86 MPH cutter to Tyler Fitzgerald, who blasted it over the left field wall to give the Giants a lead they would not relinquish.

That was Fitzgerald’s first home run of the season, which perhaps inspired Willy Adames to go deep for the first time himself two batters later.

While the lead gave the Giants a three-run cushion, the middle innings had plenty of drama for Roupp, who got through five innings thanks to his eight strikeouts. In the fourth, the Phillies got runners on second and third with no outs, before Roupp got a strikeout, a shallow fly ball, and a comebacker to strand the runners.

In the fifth, Nick Castellanos crushed a no-doubt home run to cut the lead to 6-4 and make viewers worry that a disaster had happened, since that’s Castellanos’ thing.

But Roupp struck out Realmuto to get out of the inning and lock up his first win of the season.

That win got a lot more likely after Fitzgerald tripled to lead off the seventh. Mike Yastrzemski worked an eight-pitch at-bat, seemingly looking to put the ball in play, then put the ball out of play with a home run to right field.

In the ninth, it was the Fitz-Yaz combination again. Fitzgerald doubled — he was a single short of the cycle — and Yaz doubled him home. With two outs, Matt Chapman salvaged an 0-for-4 night by legging out an infield single to score Yastrzemski from third.

Four relievers combined on four scoreless innings, though it wasn’t easy. In the sixth, Randy Rodriguez worked around a leadoff double from Kepler to keep the Phillies off the board. In the seventh, Erik Miller gave up a single to Bryce Harper and walked Castellanos, to bring up J.P. Realmuto. The Phillies catcher hit what was nearly a three-run bomb just outside the foul pole in left. Three pitches later, Miller got the benefit of a generous called strike to end the inning and infuriate Realmuto.

Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval slammed the door with perfect eighth and ninth innings, and the Giants started their 10-game road trip 3-1.

Bryce Harper did a “gender reveal” in the first inning, wielding a blue bat to indicate his fourth child will be a boy. Of course, he also struck out with said blue bat. Because if you’re playing against a team from San Francisco, making assumptions about gender will fire up the opposing dugout so much that they’ll rock your pitcher for six runs in the next inning.

The Giants’ marathon road trip continues Tuesday when Justin Verlander faces Jesus Luzardo, where Verlander will be pumped to get the victory in time for the team to watch the Golden State Warriors beat the Memphis Grizzlies.