What we learned as Roupp struggles in Giants’ loss to Cardinals

What we learned as Roupp struggles in Giants’ loss to Cardinals originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — It was 77 degrees at first pitch on Friday night, and early on, it seemed the Giants’ red-hot bats made it back from a successful road trip.

San Francisco scored three runs in the second inning, but the St. Louis Cardinals stormed back against rookie Landen Roupp, handing the Giants a 6-3 loss at Oracle Park to kick off their final series of the 2024 MLB season.

After a shocking 7-2 road trip, the Giants had some hopes of finishing with a flourish and pushing their record above .500. The best they can do now is to finish exactly at 81-81 if they win out. Here are three more things to know …

Strong Debut

Roupp’s final start of the year went off the rails in the fourth inning. He gave up four hits in the inning before departing, and when Lars Nootbar’s triple off Taylor Rogers brought two of Roupp’s runners home, he had six runs on his line.

That was a season-high for the young right-hander and bumped his ERA up to 3.58, but it still was a very successful rookie campaign. Roupp wasn’t supposed to make the Opening Day roster, but he pitched so well in Scottsdale that he began the year in the bullpen. The staff stretched him out this month, and he allowed just two runs in three starts before Friday’s rough outing.

Roupp will come to camp next year as a starter, and given the way he pitched this season, he figures to get a shot to try and win a back-end rotation spot.

Welcome Back

Randy Rodriguez missed 37 games with right elbow inflammation, and a few weeks ago it seemed likely that he simply would be shut down given the situation the Giants were in. But Rodriguez wanted to get back on a mound this season and the Giants wanted him to head into the offseason feeling confident in his elbow, so they brought him back for this final series.

Rodriguez came on for the sixth and got a flyout and two grounders. His fastball topped out at 97.3 mph. That’s down a bit from his previous outings this season, but that’s not a huge surprise given the lengthy layoff and lack of a true rehab appearance. With a normal offseason, the 25-year-old should go into next spring with a pretty firm grip on a bullpen job.

Attendance Watch

The Giants announced a crowd of 35,101, which got them to 2,579,060 for the season. They passed last year’s total on the last homestand and have a chance to finish with an improvement of about 150,000 fans over 81 games.

The Giants currently rank seventh in largest year-over-year increase, although they’re just 12th in overall fans per game. In a free-spending division, they’re well behind the two teams locked into MLB playoff spots. The Los Angeles Dodgers are first in total attendance and the San Diego Padres are third.

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