PHILADELPHIA — Willy Adames was worried. Not in earnest, of course.
Adames entered Monday at Citizens Bank Ballpark having yet to homer as a Giant. He was struggling to hit, period. When he stepped to the plate in the second inning, he hadn’t homered in his last 123 regular season plate appearances dating back to his time with the Milwaukee Brewers. Including the postseason, it was 135 plate appearances. For someone who entered the day with 150 homers to his name, it was unsurprisingly the longest streak of his career.
“I thought I lost my power,” Adames laughed. “I was like, ‘Man, I can’t homer anymore. I can’t even get a hit.’”
The power, as Adames proved in the Giants’ 10-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, is still very much there. Adames hit his first homer since signing a franchise-record $182 million deal with San Francisco, one of three home runs the Giants hit as they won their third game in four tries of this grueling 10-game road trip.
“As long as we’re winning, I really don’t care,” Adames said. “Obviously, I want to perform great. I’m just trying to help the team in any way I can right now.”
Along with Adames, Tyler Fitzgerald broke a slump in his own right by finishing a single shy of the cycle, doubling, tripling and hitting a three-run homer as part of that six-run first inning.
Fitzgerald admitted that he lost his confidence in spring training after hurting his back, saying that he developed some bad habits and his swing got long. In recent days, Fitzgerald has been able to shorten his swing with the help of Giants great and special advisor Barry Bonds, who has helped him get his swing more downwards.
The 27-year-old began the road trip with a .219 batting average and .546 OPS but began finding his footing against the New York Yankees, totaling two hits, a walk and a steal. On Monday, he flashed the power that made him one of baseball’s best rookies last season. Fitzgerald said that he would’ve been mentally “gone” if he experienced this type of slump last year, but thanked the coaching staff for sticking with him amidst the lows.
“It’s about time the bottom of the lineup stepped up for the top of the lineup for once,” Fitzgerald said. “I’m just happy to participate in the runs. We have some guys carrying us so far this season with (Wilmer Flores) and Jung Hoo (Lee). It’s important for some other guys to step up every now and then.”
Mike Yastrzemski continued to stay hot as well, driving in three runs and hitting a two-run homer off left-hander Tanner Banks, his first homer off a lefty since his walk-off against the San Diego Padres’ Ray Kerr on June 19, 2023. Manager Bob Melvin remembers that home run well on account of the fact that he was the opposing manager.
“Of course I remember that. That was the last one? Thanks for telling me that. He’s never going to face a lefty again,” Melvin joked.
Landen Roupp didn’t have his finest outing as he allowed four earned runs over five innings, but the start was impressive in that Roupp was able to bounce back from a three-run first inning.
Roupp needed 36 pitches to record his first three outs, forcing manager Bob Melvin to get Spencer Bivens warmed up when Roupp got to the bottom of Philadelphia’s lineup in the first. If Melvin didn’t retire Alec Bohm to end the inning, Melvin would’ve pulled the plug on Roupp’s day altogether.
After striking out Bohm to end the inning, the Giants’ offense picked up Roupp by dropping a six spot on right-hander Taijuan Walker. With a three-run lead instead of a three-run deficit, Roupp composed himself and gave the Giants four more innings after the first, the lone blip in the latter part of his outing being a solo homer to Nick Castellanos.
“He’s a tough kid,” Melvin said. “It certainly didn’t go his way in the first. They have a way of getting guys early and it puts the pressure on you. To be able to get through five like that was huge for us.”
Roupp’s bread and butter against the Phillies was his curveball, a pitch he went to early and often. The right-hander threw 56 curveballs, the most thrown in a single outing by a Giants pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). Roupp also generated 15 whiffs with the curve, which is also the most with that pitch in a single game by a Giant in the pitch-tracking era.
“The game plan was definitely curveball heavy, offspeed heavy,” Roupp said. “I don’t know that we planned to throw that many, but as you go through the game and you see the reaction, the swings of hitters, you flip the script on that and that’s what we did.”