A pair of 27-year-old right-handers who are off to successful starts will face relatively unfamiliar opponents on Sunday afternoon when Max Meyer and the Miami Marlins close a three-game road series against Landen Roupp and the San Francisco Giants.
The teams have split the first two games of the set, with the Giants drawing even Saturday in a 6-2 win after the Marlins dominated the opener 9-4.
Meyer (1-0, 3.96 ERA) has allowed no more than three runs in any of his outings this season, with Miami winning three of his five starts. He limited the St. Louis Cardinals to two runs and three hits over 5 1/3 innings on Monday, striking out a season-best eight in his team’s 5-3 home win.
The fourth-year major-leaguer has never faced the Giants, who experienced an interesting situation on Saturday when designated hitter Casey Schmitt slipped rounding second base in the second inning of a scoreless game, eventually costing San Francisco a run. But Schmitt responded with a tie-breaking, two-run home run four innings later, giving the hosts a lead they never relinquished.
Giants manager Tony Vitello insisted to reporters afterward that he was not surprised how the sequence of events unfolded.
“He makes the coaches feel comfortable around him because he’s not afraid to laugh at himself, which we all have to do because we all make mistakes,” Vitello noted of Schmitt. “He wants to win. When an obstacle comes up, he gets a little more determined. I don’t think it’s a coincidence (the home run) happened.”
The Giants’ Roupp (4-1, 2.28 ERA) has been the club’s best starter in the early going, including a current three-game personal winning streak in which he held the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers to a total of two runs and seven hits in 17 innings, striking out 17. He has won his last two starts despite getting just three runs of support in each.
Roupp has thrown just one inning against the Marlins in his three-year career, a hitless ninth in a 7-5 home loss in September 2024.
The right-hander will have to deal with a lineup that’s been much more productive against righty pitchers this season, including the season-high-tying, 16-hit outburst in a game started by right-hander Adrian Houser on Friday. The Marlins weren’t nearly as effective Saturday as the Giants threw three left-handers, including starter Robbie Ray.
Miami began the weekend with the third-highest team batting average in baseball (.276) against right-handers.
Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said he loved watching the show Friday, one in which his team put up nine or more runs for the fourth time this season. All four surges have come in games started by opposing right-handers.
“From the very beginning I thought our approach was outstanding,” McCullough said after Friday’s win. “Our swing decisions were outstanding. It was just a real offensive clinic, one through nine, with the type of quality at-bats.”
–Field Level Media
