SF Giants score early and often with 5 home runs in rout of Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Don’t look now, but are the Giants suddenly a force to be reckoned with in the early innings?

Since hitting the road after their latest home stand, the Giants have scored first in all five contests and once again built an early and overpowering lead while slugging five home runs on a steamy Saturday afternoon at Kaufmann Stadium to secure their fourth win of the trip, 9-0, and clinch their third consecutive road series.

Matt Chapman and LaMonte Wade Jr. went back-to-back to lead off the fourth inning and each added another homer before Mike Yastrzemski turned it into a rout with the final blow of a six-run sixth. All nine of the Giants’ runs came in the first six innings, bringing their total on the trip to 19, tied for the fifth-most in the majors dating back to Tuesday’s 10-0 win in Baltimore.

“You know, we always talk about it but maybe not as much recently,” manager Bob Melvin said of getting to the opponent’s starting pitcher. “It always sets the tone for the game. When you score a run in the first inning, it’s always a momentum thing. Next thing you know, we have two and then we put up a crooked number. It’s been a lot better here recently.”

When the Giants boarded their charter flight for their final road trip of the season, they were having a hard time scoring in any portion of the game, having been shut out their past three games. But over the course of the season, their offensive troubles have been magnified in the early innings.

They had scored 412 runs in the first six innings, fifth-fewest in the majors, and 241 in the seventh or later, tied for the seventh-most.

But the trend has turned in the opposite direction over the past five games, to positive effect. Wade started things with a solo shot off Royals starter Brady Singer in the first and the Giants piled on from there, improving to 4-1 on the trip with all but 10 of their 29 runs coming in the first six innings.

“We’re trying to be aggressive, but that’s something we’ve gone through over the course of the season,” Melvin said. “At times we’re a little bit passive. You’re always trying to make a starter work a little bit harder and run his pitch count up. Maybe a little bit recently we’ve been going after that and not worried about pitch counts with starters.”

The early run support powered one rookie starter, Mason Black, to his first career win Friday night and a second, Landen Roupp, on Saturday.

“The offense was unreal today. Once they (put up a six-spot in the sixth), I was like, I think we’ve got it in the bag and I was going to get my first win,” said Roupp, who became the second Giants pitcher in as many days to be dumped in a laundry basket and doused with everything in sight. “I got to do it last night for Mason and got it done to me tonight. Can’t beat that.”

The Royals put runners on base in all five of Roupp’s innings but weren’t able to cash in against the 26-year-old right-hander, who used a heavy dose of his lethal curveball to complete five shutout innings, limiting Kansas City to three hits and three walks while striking out three.

“I think he did it, what, two or three times today to get out of jams, with not his best stuff early on,” said Curt Casali, who quarterbacked three pitchers to the Giants’ 10th shutout of the season and contributed a pair of hits and RBIs. “It just kind of goes to show what kind of pitcher he can be. He’s got four quality pitches and it’s just really hard to handle if he’s landing all of them.”

In 22 games, Roupp owns a 2.70 ERA and has been even better since moving into the starting rotation at the start of September. Including his four-inning stint out of the bullpen that prompted the move, he has logged 19 frames while allowing just two runs — a 0.95 ERA — on 11 hits.

“I was really kind of tempted to let him go back out there (for the sixth),” Melvin said of Roupp, who used a season-high 87 pitches. “But, man, he’s really focused out there. He’s intense. All this is building up with confidence and you’re seeing the type of stuff he has and what he can accomplish.”

The Giants’ five home runs tied their most in one game all season, matching their April 13 win at Tampa Bay, while Chapman and Wade’s power display accomplished an ever rarer feat. It was the first time two Giants players hit multiple home runs in one game since Thairo Estrada and Joc Pederson on June 11, 2023.

“I think guys are just really clicking right now,” said Wade, who collected his first multi-homer game since July 25, 2021, and has now homered three times in eight at-bats against Singer. “The offense has really improved these last couple series, which is a really good sign, to see guys aren’t just throwing in the towel. We’re disappointed in how the year went, but that doesn’t mean we can’t finish strong.”

Chapman, a new dad, and Wade, who had 120-plus friends and family in the stands in Baltimore, were both riding emotional highs. As for Yastrzemski, well, he’s just been hot. His two-run shot in the sixth was his seventh homer of the month, tied with July 2021 for the second-most he has hit in one month and giving him 18 on the year.

Chapman only arrived in Kansas City about 3 hours before gametime Saturday after his wife, Taylor, gave birth to their first daughter, Gia, on Thursday. Before catching his 8 a.m. flight from Arizona, he said, “I told her I was going to hit a homer for her. I was thinking about her when I was running around the bases.”

With seven games left, he could set his sights on a notable number in Giants lore: the 30-homer threshold, which no San Francisco hitter has reached since Barry Bonds.

“I don’t know, I’m going to have to go on an Ohtani run,” grinned Chapman, whose pair of homers still made him one of four Giants to reach 26 since 2010.

If ever was the time, it’s now. One thing everyone in the clubhouse could agree on was the boost of becoming a new dad.

“With Chappy’s newfound dad strength, not that he needed anymore pop in his bat,” Casali said. “It happens all the time. It’s just so crazy how when you have a kid, you’re going to homer that day. It’s wild. To do it twice is a really special thing to do.”

“I think dad strength is real,” added Wade.

“I guess so,” Chapman said. “They talk about it. I’ve seen guys hit a lot of homers on the first day they’re back from having a baby. So I’m glad I got to join that club.”