Giants’ Landen Roupp dealing with back issue. Will he need IL?

MILWAUKEE — Before their biggest blowout loss of a bumbling season had even ended, the Giants’ problems went from bad to worse.

Landen Roupp, their best starter so far, wasn’t himself in San Francisco’s 16–2 loss Monday to begin their series against the Brewers, and afterward manager Tony Vitello revealed why.

He was pitching with a bad back.

“His back was locking up on him a little bit,” Vitello said. “Obviously not one of his best outings, but I also don’t think he was at his best. … Knowing that I think feeds into that outing a little bit.”

Roupp, who was tagged for a season-high eight earned runs over four innings, downplayed the concern that it would be a long-term issue or even that it had an impact on his outing.

“Obviously when you’re not feeling good, it’s always in the back of your head,” Roupp said. “So that could’ve had something to do with it, but either way, I’ve got to compete better.”

Roupp required 96 pitches just to make it through four, threw only half of them for strikes and matched his season-high with five bases on balls. He spotted Milwaukee seven runs immediately after the Giants took an early 2–0 lead and continued to labor from there.

“Guys put up two early, and I kind of just slapped them in the face,” Roupp said.

It might seem like managerial malpractice to leave a pitcher out there laboring like Roupp was, ailing and all, but Vitello can only act on the information at his disposal.

Roupp, a tough competitor in the mold of Logan Webb, said the back bothered him for most of the day but only informed the coaching staff after he came out of the game.

“I think it just built up as the pitch count built up,” Vitello said. “I don’t think he was at risk of anything crazy.”

Still, there’s no such thing as a minor issue for a player who has dealt with back problems in the past. Roupp said this was “definitely less serious” than the injury that kept him off the mound in the minors for the entire second half of the 2023 season.

Back then, Roupp was dealing in his first full season at Double-A, making 10 starts with a 1.74 ERA. He had tossed 3 ⅓ shutout frames in his 10th start of the year when a disc slipped in his lower back on June 30. It ended up being the last pitch he threw that season.

“When I got hurt in ‘23, it was pretty bad,” Roupp said. “I think I’ll be fine.”

Vitello was also confident Roupp would be able to manage the issue moving forward.

“You’re going to have to rip the ball out of his hand,” Vitello said. “He’s never going to want to come out of the game.”

However, the manager made a strikingly similar proclamation regarding Webb, right before the Giants’ workhorse ace landed on the injured list for the first time in his career.

The good news is that Webb is back and will get the ball again on Wednesday, which obviously would help the Giants withstand a minimum of 15 days without Roupp if it’s ultimately determined that he needs to take some time to get right.

The pitcher who initially took Webb’s rotation spot, Trevor McDonald, is already occupying the slot vacated by Tyler Mahle when he hit the IL on Friday with a strained hamstring.

If Roupp is forced to miss starts, the Giants have some options at Triple-A Sacramento, though none as attractive as their former top prospect Kyle Harrison, who will oppose them Tuesday.

Carson Whisenhunt had strung together six strong starts in a row — a 1.62 ERA in 33 1/3 innings — before getting hit around the last time he took the mound. Carson Seymour, who appeared in 16 games last season, including three starts, nearly made the team out of spring training and has a respectable 4.04 ERA in 11 outings, including a 42:17 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Blade Tidwell earned the Opening Day roster spot instead and pitched well enough out of the bullpen that the Giants sent him to Triple-A to get stretched out as a starter, but he still only threw 82 pitches in his last outing and has a 6.75 ERA in six games.

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