Did you think Friday was tough? Well, let me introduce you to Saturday — it was so much worse! Bad defense, no offense, frustrated pitching.
Sound familiar?
Believe it or not, there was a point at the beginning of the Giants’ 9-0 loss to the Mets when things were actually going pretty swell.
Landen Roupp started the evening with four strikeouts on the first four batters he faced. He flashed everything in his arsenal: Curve, sinker, change-up, curve. Check, check, check. One out in the 2nd, the sun was shining, the Mets were whiffing. Everything was going just fine.
But good things don’t last — at least, not for the 2026 San Francisco Giants.
The Mets hitters — rather abruptly — figured out how to put the bat on the ball, and everything got so much worse. Mark Vientos found a seam along the third base line for a one-out double. Marcus Semien followed by lunging at a curveball, rolling it so softly towards short that Willy Adames had to rush his throw to first. Of course, it sailed wide, Semien was safe, the bases were loaded, and that was when the flashbacks started. The terrible recollections of weak choppers, wayward throws, missed catches from earlier in the week. Poorly struck grounders in the most inconvenient places, like grains of sand in the infield gears, grinding them to a halt.
Jerar Encarnacion did the right thing on Adames’s throw and left the bag to secure the ball — but the bigger problem remains. That lack of sharpness, especially from their veterans, has exposed the lack-of-expertise of others. It haunted them in their finale against San Diego, and it bit them big time here.
Next batter, in an 0-2 count, Carson Benge threw his bat at a change-up and somehow put it in the most annoying place possible. The grounder dragged Chapman’s momentum away from the plate, making the force out there unlikely. But it was just likely enough for Chapman to consider it. That brief glance towards the plate split his concentration on the exchange. The ball fell out of his glove, somehow recovered it in mid-air, and now desperate to get one out, whipped the baseball in first base’s general direction.
Looking back at the replay, the throw was surprisingly accurate, and Encarnacion, perhaps shocked that Chapman actually managed to get a throw off, botched the easy part. The “catch the f***ing ball” part.
Next batter, another 70 MPH grounder hit just slow enough, just far enough away from the infield positioning, to take away the possibility of Luis Arraez starting an inning-ending double play and preventing another run from scoring.
A double, three grounders that didn’t leave the infield, and three runs for New York in the 2nd. Landen Roupp was understandably steamed. And he only got hotter by the 5th. After a lead-off single, Encarnacion fell on a grounder, blocking it like a hockey goalie, rather than fielding it like a normal baseball player would. The misplay, though redeemed by Roupp coming over to pick up the loose ball and get the out first, cost the starter another chance at a two-fer. This proved costly when Luis Torrens, advancing to second on the play, promptly scored on Bo Bichette’s RBI single up the middle. That ball too skipped within range of an infielder’s glove, and while it would’ve been an impressive play by Adames, Roupp couldn’t help but tamp down his frustrations that another grounder had made its way through to the outfield.
The right-hander tried to refocus. He battled through nine pitches to eventually strike out Jorge Polanco for his seventh K, but at that point, Roupp was gassed physically and emotionally. A shell of a his former self way back in the 1st inning. Tough breaks coupled with lack-of-execution will do that to a man. But even though Roupp was clearly broken, the Mets refused to let up. Brett Baty rolled another grounder through the right-side of the infield to extend the inning, then Vientos sent a single through the same hole to plate New York’s fifth run, and…yeah, that was it. Roupp was done. Tony Vitello released him from the mound, and he slumped back to the dugout where he had the pleasure of watching Tyrone Taylor launch a hanging curve ball from Ryan Borucki over the wall in left-center, mercifully closing the book on the starter’s outing.
7 runs, 6 earned, and Roupp maybe deserved half of them. A small consolation: the bad defense wasn’t personal. It continued after he left the mound. Luis Arraez missed a tag at second. Keaton Winn didn’t back up home properly on a relay, and a subsequent wild pitch gave Taylor a free trip to third after his RBI single.
I suppose none of these defensive shenanigans really mattered considering the offense amounted to three singles and a pair of walks against Clay Holmes. In the words of Mike Krukow, the bats have been living in the castle or the outhouse so far this season — and this was another night in the shitter. Early opportunities presented themselves too. The leadoff man reached base in each of the first three innings. They had a chance to get back in the game and capitalize on a defensive miscue too when a throwing error by Bichette put Chapman in scoring position in the 2nd. But Jung Hoo Lee waved through three straight breaking balls from Holmes, and the next two hitters were dutifully retired.
And I use that word “dutifully” without embellishment — there was an odd air of obedience when the Giants were at the plate. They knew their roles, and with heads down, they fulfilled them quickly and with little fight. Routine fly out to center. A grounder to short. Any spark, like Patrick Bailey’s well-struck line drive, was promptly snuffed out.
Another forgettable game. Hasn’t there been a couple of those already?
Read the full article here
