Tony Vitello, Landen Roupp condemn walks in Giants' 5-2 loss against Rockies

Tony Vitello and Landen Roupp speak to reporters after the Giants' 5-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Friday night at Oracle Park.

Tony Vitello, Landen Roupp condemn walks in Giants' 5-2 loss against Rockies originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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Tony, Landon started the night off pretty strong, and then they ended up scoring four against him.

Just what maybe changed as the night went on?

Yeah, it was a tale of two halves.

I would lean on the pitch efficiency, kinda told a lot of the, the story.

It was 30 pitches in, in the first three innings, and then 30 plus in the fourth.

You know, even, even going out there in the sixth, as competitive as he is, you don't want to give up any runs, but six innings, two runs is a pretty good outing for us, especially with all the left-handed hitters they throw at him.

But I think the walk is, you know, really what started the whole thing there, and then you add the wild pitch, and I can't speak for him on the focus on the next pitch, but I, I know, you know, he definitely didn't make, his best pitch to Veen for sure.

Bryce has been struggling a little bit as of late, but that's his second homer in the last three games.

Just what are you seeing from his swings recently?

Yeah, I mean, I think he's using the middle of the field really well.

You know, gets robbed of a hit there.

He didn't necessarily square it up as, as hard as he usually does.

But, even some of his outs have been back spun to the middle of the field.

So, it, it's hard to say, you know, struggle or not.

He, he came in, lit the world on fire at times, you know, for a while there.

But overall to me, there's been a decent level of consistency.

Hey, Tony.

Kind of some, some strange plays on, on both sides in this game as far as base running and, and maybe some plays in the field.

Do you feel like that that's kind of an area both of these teams, like both you and the Rockies are, kinda need to improve to, to get to that next level just as far as fundamentals?

I mean, there was a quirky one there with, McCarthy.

It was interesting with the two strike bunt attempts and then the, the flare.

But really, the, the play Rupe had was kind of a do or die, with how the bunt was put down, and he missed arm side, which is, you know, typically the way that deal goes down and, you know, the way the base runner got caught up.

Y- y- you could pull each one of them aside and say, you know, it's an exception here or there.

I know they play a good brand of baseball on the position side.

It's tough to pitch there.

It just is.

I'm sure it's different when they go on the road for their pitchers.

But speaking for our own team, w- we need to get better in a lot of different areas.

So, you know, again, you could pull those out and, and make an exception for all of them.

Just the, the one thing we have to do is throw strikes.

I mean, it Y- you can say this guy hit a home run, and this guy didn't get a hit with a runner in scoring position, but, we walked seven, they walked one.

That's, that's all That to me, you know, we c- we should be sitting here saying 3-2 game, and one of those mistakes could have cost the game.

But, to me, those are, those are secondary to that.

The one thing we can't do is throw the ball to the wrong base when we have a team meeting about it before the game.

Can't do it anyway, but especially on a day where we, we literally have a meeting about it.

Tony, what'd you make of, Jonah's night, tonight?

Had the catch early on and then the triple in the ninth almost.

Yeah.

And, and also, y- you know, barrels a ball in the first inning where, it can't get, be caught cleanly or wasn't caught cleanly because of the hard contact, and then he just gets down the line every time.

I mean, you're programmed to have your hand up even if it's close at all, but I feel like I gotta have my hand up anytime he swings the bat because the way he gets down the line is, first of all, he's fast, but also he plays the game at full speed.

So, even, even when he's not landing on balls like he did, on the triple, he's, he's been giving good at-bats.

And it was encouraging to see.

I think the challenge is on to see how good he can be against left-handed pitching.

He's gonna play against right-handed pitching too.

But the challenge is on and really, if you just go for the whole night, he probably had the best night, against left-handed pitching.

Hi, Tony.

What makes fa- facing, facing free and is so tough tonight?

Yeah, tonight I think he was good.

It was, again, first the strikes, he was super efficient.

He was in a position to finish the game, you know, dang near with i- with his pitch count.

But it was a really good mix of having guys out front.

He doesn't have an overpowering fastball, but you don't have to have an overpowering one if you locate it.

And I thought it was a really good mix of having guys out front, but then going in on guys and locating when he was going in.

Not as many pitchers as you would maybe think can do, can execute that at such a high level.

So the contrast to those two things I think s- had some guys off balance.

And again, he was super efficient with how he attacked guys.

A couple hits from Basabe tonight and then Baracodo's in the ninth.

Are, are those two guys that could really cement, you know, a, a job on this roster next season with how they finish the campaign?

I think they have an opportunity to.

I mean, there's a big pool of guys that have an opportunity to.

That would be more, I would tie that into the question earlier is how you separate yourself, again, style of play versus style of play, I don't know.

But if you break it down to individual, how you separate yourself, if you're not an all-star caliber player, which I'm not limiting saying those guys can't.

But for now, like you're saying, if you're anybody trying to cement yourself into a roster, it's things like the way Jonah gets down the line.

It's keeping a ball in front on the infield, communicating well in the outfield, doing little things that make a difference.

Because tonight's frustrating.

We could've came back, could've pitched better.

It could've been a one-run game.

But a big story of our season is those tight games have not gone our way nearly at all, and it's affected other days too.

So it shows the power of those games.

And again, as talented as these guys are, and there's some superstars in the league, it's usually one or two of those little things adds up to making a difference in a game.

So to me, they both can hit and they're always going to hit.

Just seeing what I've seen, those little things are going to stack up for, for them and anyone else that's in a pool like that or that is in that pool.

Ruffy, Ruffy seemed pretty convinced that that ball hit the ground in the ninth inning.

Just what did you see there in that, that- Yeah, I mean, I was blocked by, Gary, from, from my point of view.

Just saw him lay out and, you know, I'm sure anxiety's high there to try and do whatever we got to do to score to come back in the thing and maybe jump the gun a little bit with the, the score being the way it was.

But I, I think, you know, it's pretty evident he thought the ball was down.

Guy made a sport center catch, end up getting two out of it, two outs out of it.

Glen, you started the night so strong.

Those first three innings won't be shifted for you after the fourth inning onwards.

Yeah.

I mean, I felt good the whole time.

I really think I only made one bad, bad pitch, and, and it really wasn't even a bad pitch to, to, Veeam there.

Just got to stop walking people.

I think that's the common theme here is, you know, when I'm walking guys, they, they tend to score.

So, just got to pitch to contact and, and get quick outs.

It's funny.

So the, the seven walks that you guys issued as a team versus the one that they issued, just how frustrating is that as a pitching staff as a whole for there to be such a big imbalance between how many you're walking and how many they're walking?

Yeah.

You just got to compete in the zone.

That's, that's kind of, kind of what it is.

Good things happen when you're in the zone and, I'm not doing a great job of that right now.

So got to figure out what it is and change it quick because, I'm not giving the, the, the team a chance to win right now.

Do you think it's like a mechanical issue that's kind of having trouble with you finding the zone or?

Yeah.

I haven't, I haven't felt right since, for a while now.

I'm not, I'm not sure what it is.

I feel good in my bullpens and then I get in the game and it's a little different.

So, just going to keep working and, and, and trying stuff and trying to figure it out.

You're well past your career high innings.

Do you think workload has played into it at all?

I, I don't think so.

My arm feels good.

My body feels good.

So, just got to clean it up a little bit.

Seems like the first time through the lineup, you, things usually go pretty well, but the second, third time is when things get choppy there.

Do you kind of have an understanding of why the second, third time is just such a struggle or?

Yeah.

I think I attacked the plan really well, first, first, first and second time through and then, kind of go away from it a little bit after that.

And then that's when they start, you know, getting hits and, and, I start walking them because I'm trying to, I'm trying to strike the guys out.

So, just got to stick to the plan that we have going into the game because it's working early on.

So, yeah.

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