Roupp hurls 6-plus scoreless innings as Giants blank Nats in opener

WASHINGTON -- The Giants’ starting rotation has undergone something of a youth movement this week, with Hayden Birdsong and Kyle Harrison suddenly entering the fold after briefly serving as understudies in the bullpen.

On Friday night, another upstart stole the spotlight, with Landen Roupp tossing six-plus scoreless innings to help the Giants blank the Nationals, 4-0, in the series opener at Nationals Park.

Roupp gave up only five hits while walking two and striking out two in his efficient 76-pitch outing, which lowered his ERA to 3.63 over 10 starts this year. The 26-year-old right-hander -- who beat out Birdsong and Harrison for the fifth starting spot in Spring Training -- opened his season with a 5.10 ERA over his first six outings, but he’s hit his stride in May, recording a 1.64 ERA (four earned runs over 22 innings) across four starts this month, including back-to-back outings of six or more scoreless innings.

Roupp’s latest quality start was even more impressive considering he didn’t feel like he had his best pitch -- his curveball -- working against the Nationals. Roupp had thrown his breaking ball 42.1% coming into the game, the highest usage rate for a curveball among qualified Major League starters this season, but it accounted for only 22% of his pitches on Friday, as he was able to lean on his sinker (43%), changeup (24%), cutter (8%) and four-seam fastball (3%) to neutralize Washington’s lineup, which was stacked with left-handed hitters.

“With a lot of lefties, you hang your curveball, you get hit pretty hard,” Roupp said. “I was pretty confident in my changeup and my cutter today. I think this game gives me more confidence than the last one, just because of that reason. In the past, I haven’t been that good to lefties just because I’ve never had four pitches. Really just throwing all my pitches tonight really helped.”

Roupp outdueled Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore, who held the Giants scoreless through his first six innings before he was forced to depart with a left thigh injury in the seventh. Gore issued a leadoff walk to Jung Hoo Lee and then drew a mound visit from Washington manager Dave Martinez and a team trainer after falling behind, 2-0, against Matt Chapman.

Gore, who was struck by Willy Adames’ comebacker in the second inning, ended up coming out of the game with a charley horse after throwing 91 pitches, which helped breathe new life into a Giants lineup that entered Friday only 4-12 against left-handed starters this season.

Washington right-hander Jackson Rutledge was brought into the game to relieve Gore, and he walked Chapman before inducing a 6-4-3 double play from Wilmer Flores. Still, Willy Adames followed with a two-out single up the middle to break the deadlock and give the Giants a 1-0 lead. Casey Schmitt, Mike Yastrzemski and Patrick Bailey then drew three consecutive walks from Rutledge to force in another run and hand a two-run lead over to Roupp.

“Somebody was going to blink first,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Obviously, with [Gore] coming out of the game, we did a good job with their bullpen in the end. It’s kind of what we do. We jump on bullpens. I would never want somebody coming out with an injury, but we did better work after he left.”

Roupp returned to the mound in the bottom of the seventh, but he was removed after surrendering a leadoff double to Luis García Jr. and walking Josh Bell. Still, Randy Rodríguez came in and managed to strand both runners by striking out Robert Hassell III swinging on a 98 mph fastball before inducing an inning-ending double play from José Tena.

Rodríguez now has a 0.83 ERA over 21 appearances for the Giants, which ranks third in the Majors and leads the National League among hurlers who have thrown a minimum of 20 innings this year.

“It really is amazing what he’s done this year,” Melvin said. “He’s got the toughest assignment, typically. He’s coming on with guys on base after a starter gave us six innings. A couple of guys on base, and he gives up nothing. It’s just not surprising, but it’s difficult to do with guys on base and nobody out like that.”

The Giants added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth, when Flores delivered an RBI single and Chapman scored from third on a wild pitch from Andrew Chafin. Erik Miller and Camilo Doval came in after Rodríguez and worked an inning apiece to seal San Francisco’s third shutout win of the year.