CHICAGO — Landen Roupp found himself with his back against the wall not once, but twice, on Friday night. Fortunately for the Giants, the 26-year-old right-hander didn’t break either time.
Roupp showed his mettle by working out of a pair of bases-loaded jams, and Patrick Bailey delivered a go-ahead, two-run triple to lift the Giants to a 3-1 series-opening win over the struggling White Sox at Rate Field.
San Francisco (45-37) wasn’t able to capitalize on the soft pocket of its schedule earlier this week after being swept by the sub-.500 Marlins at home, but it managed to do enough to get past the White Sox (26-56) and take the first game of its 10-game road trip through Chicago, Phoenix and West Sacramento.
“A big win for us getting on this road trip,” Bailey said. “It’s a grindy win. I still think there’s a lot of stuff we can improve on and do better, but at the end of the day, a win is a win.”
Chicago took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning after Chase Meidroth and Andrew Benintendi ripped back-to-back singles off Roupp, and shortstop Willy Adames allowed Miguel Vargas’ 103.2 mph liner to deflect off his glove and bounce into left field for an error.
Heliot Ramos quickly corralled the ball and threw back to the infield, but Adames didn’t position himself to receive the cut-off throw, which permitted Meidroth to score from second. Still, Roupp managed to work around traffic and limit the damage the rest of the way.
The White Sox loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but Roupp coaxed a 6-4-3 double play from No. 9 hitter Michael A. Taylor on a first-pitch sinker to end the inning. He was tested again in the fifth, when Chicago loaded the bases for the second consecutive inning, but he struck out Kyle Teel swinging on a changeup and then used his trademark curveball to coax a popup from Lenyn Sosa to emerge unscathed.
“I think early on, I felt like I was at like 75% strikes, and then I kind of lost it,” Roupp said. “But just using the sinker when I needed to, to get the double play, and the curveball got me out of a big inning. Just attacking guys and trying to stay in the strike zone.”
Roupp yielded seven hits and walked two, but he ended up surrendering only one unearned run over 5 1/3 innings, lowering his ERA to 3.43 over 16 starts this year.