Bucking the trend established in March, these 2026 Goofs started the second, and smaller, half of the season on the right foot with a 7-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.
A quality start and seven scoreless tossed by Landen Roupp, a grand-slam slammed by Willy Adames — is this the first step in the Giants’ journey back to respectability???
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Haha!
These odd, mid-year, longer than a weekend, less than a week vacations like the All-Star break can be restful but not baptismal. Rebirth might be a lot to ask for from just a four-day holiday. Taken out of their rhythm and routine, it’s quite possible that this team forgot how to be bad together. Give it a couple of days. Or a day. Or until later this afternoon…
For many teams in the Giants situation, late-July is not the time for hope, but acceptance. Peace and freedom come with knowing exactly where you are and understanding there is little you can do to change that. This kind of perspective was on full display Friday night. The players didn’t get immediately pulled back into the rushing and crushing current of the season, but embraced the pace of a lazy river, showcasing a more laissez-faire approach. Sit back on the tube, no need to rush, let the game happen.
It was the right mindset when facing a guy like Seattle’s Bryce Miller, who works fast, throws a lot of strikes and gets a lot of strikeouts. He’s going to be effective and in control. Miller pitched as advertised with pinpoint accuracy and a fearlessness to live in the zone and trust the stuff of his rising four-seam and banana-peel splitter. He struck out four Giants in a row across the first couple frames. A one-out walk by Drew Cavanaugh and single by Luis Arraez in the 3rd set up runners at the corners for Bryce Eldridge. What felt like a huge opportunity to scratch across the game’s first run fell by the wayside when Eldridge weakly popped up to second, defusing the offense’s only scoring threat against Miller over the first four innings.
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Eldridge was frustrated of course. He lunged at a 1-0 splitter and golfed it into the air off his front foot. But the plate appearance served as reconnaissance for the next one. The offense grew into the game, they trusted they had time to figure things out, and what Eldridge figured out about Miller in the 3rd helped him in the 5th. One, Miller will throw the split-finger in the zone — it’s not a chase pitch. Two, he’ll throw it when he’s behind in the count, or any count, because he trusts it over the plate, because he knows it’s nasty (opponents were hitting .119 against it). Three, it’s something he can hit. The pop-up contact didn’t look impressive, but I imagine feeling it leave his bat emboldened Eldridge. He wasn’t flabbergasted, he just missed. A better timed swing, and he could drive it.
Drive it, he did.
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Same sequence as the 3rd — slider, splitter — just a different count, and not located as well. The pitch stayed up and Eldridge stayed back, sending it just over the wall in center field for a tie-busting two-run homer.
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The whole line-up continued to evolve against Miller. They fanned four times across the first two innings, then only struck out twice more over the next six frames. A walk, hit-batter, and some sloppy defense by the typically resolute Seattle middle-infielders would help add another run on Miller and chase him from the mound in the 6th. And in the 7th, Willy Adames busted the game open with a grand slam off reliever Nick Davila.
Fourth time was the charm for the shortstop. He had come up hitless in his previous three at-bats, all with a Jung Hoo Lee on base. In the 6th, with Lee in scoring position, Adames fouled off six pitches in a 9-pitch scruff against Miller before he went down chasing a splitter. Tellingly, Adames didn’t swear angrily after the strikeout. He didn’t kick dirt, slam his helmet, or disgustingly toss his bat. That’s never really his style, but Adames actually ended his gigantic whiff with a deferential gesture and nod back to the mound. He smiled at Miller as he turned back to the dugout. A good at-bat ended by a better pitch.
Perspective. There will always be more chances. For these Giants specifically: there is nothing left to lose. The luxury of late-summer, the spoils of the losers, is exactly this. An inning later with the bases loaded, Adames put the game out of reach with San Francisco’s eighth of the season, and his 16th homer.
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The other obvious reason the offense could bide their time and hit with patience and such consequence is because Landen Roupp’s pitching kept them in the game.
Well-rested after ten days, still jazzed after his impressive 8-inning performance against the Blue Jays before the break, perhaps, egged on by Miller’s early dominance — whatever it was, Roupp stymied Seattle’s bats over seven innings. It wasn’t dominant by way of the swing-and-miss or strikeout: he walked more batters (3) than he K’ed (2), and Miller out-whiffed him 15 to 5. The performance was dominant by how he trusted his offerings to dictate contact.
Roupp has one of the lowest hard-hit rates of any starter in the Majors, and he’s at his best when hitters bat the ball in play on his terms. Pitching isn’t about withholding the baseball, but sharing it. Roupp owns a sinker, curve, change trail mix. The question before each hike out to the mound is will he let hitters pick-and-choose what they want from his bag, or is he going to make them close their eyes and submit to the unpredictability of the blind handful?
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Friday night, Roupp kept Seattle guessing.The first time through the order Roupp leaned heavily on his sinker and change-up. Second and third time, he eased off the sinker, feathered in more of his cutter, kept the offspeed consistent, and increased his curve usage from 19% to 26% to 45%.
That game plan worked pretty well. The heavy dose of breaking stuff and off-speed led to most contact being driven into the ground. The Mariners managed just two singles off Roupp, their first coming with two-outs in the 4th, and a runner never reached second base. While Roupp walked three, he was discerning when he got stingy with the zone. Two of the three walks, and three of their five Seattle baserunners overall, reached with two outs already recorded.
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Eldridge and Adames homered, Roupp framed the All-Star break with another great outing, but the player starring behind the scenes was the man behind the mask, Drew Cavanaugh.
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Before the game, Daniel Susac was recalled from the IL and Eric Haase was designated for assignment, effectively thrusting back-up catcher Cavanaugh into a meatier role. He repaid the vote of confidence by reaching base four times with two walks and two singles while batting out of the 9-hole. He singled before Eldridge’s 5th inning pop. His walk (his second against Miller) loaded the bases, and his savvy base running screen on Arraez’s bounder probably forced second baseman Cole Young’s bobble. On top of all that, he threw out Victor Robles trying to steal second in the 5th.
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A week and a half of rest for the starter, the whole team getting four days off — this team seemed to appreciate the break. How ’bout another one, please?
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