SAN FRANCISCO — Landen Roupp was in line for his first win since April 26 and the Giants were positioned to complete their very first sweep of the season.
It all fell apart, like so much else this season, thanks to their bullpen.
Roupp limited the Athletics to two runs over six innings and Jung Hoo Lee delivered a bases-clearing triple that, combined with Victor Bericoto’s two-run blast that followed, gave San Francisco a four-run lead.
The problem was that they needed the bullpen to protect it for three innings.
Ryan Walker, Erik Miller and Dylan Smith allowed the A’s to cut into the lead in the seventh and eighth innings, and it evaporated once and for all in the ninth against closer Caleb Kilian.
The result: a 9-6 loss in the series finale. A 26th series they failed to sweep. And a 10th consecutive start where Roupp failed to earn a win.
The A’s scored in each of the final three innings, totaling seven runs against the Giants’ bullpen.
Kilian, named the closer earlier this month, never recovered after speedy leadoff man Henry Bolte beat out an infield single to the opposite side that Casey Schmitt was shaded.
A wild pitch put the potential tying run on second base with nobody out, but Kilian retired Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers to make it through the meatiest part of the A’s order.
Then, he issued a two-out walk to Tyler Sodorstrom and didn’t record another out.
Jonah Heim, Lawrence Butler and Max Muncy singled home four runs off Kilian before Matt Gage finally recorded the third out of the inning, with a one-run lead now a three-run deficit.
The blown save was Kilian’s second in seven chances, the Giants’ 10th as a team in 26 save opportunities and San Francisco’s fifth loss in 34 games it has led after eight innings.
The Giants, it turns out, will have to wait even longer to break out the brooms.
What it means
Roupp turned in his second consecutive quality start, limiting the A’s to two runs over six innings with six strikeouts to only one walk, but will still have to wait to get into the win column again.
Who’s hot
What a couple days it’s been for Victor Bericoto.
The Giants’ left fielder was in the starting lineup Wednesday for the first time since June 10 and spent the entire game trying to find out if his family was OK following two massive earthquakes in his native Venezuela, also home to Luis Arraez and injured reliever Jose Butto.
That was on his mind when he fired a 93 mph laser beam to nab a runner at home plate, and when he crushed the 445-foot walkoff home run in the 2-1 win.
Bericoto, it turned out, wasn’t done.
He unleashed another throw on the money from left field in the fourth inning on Thursday. This one went to second base, where Tyler Soderstrom was dead to rights trying to extend a single into a double leading off the inning.
Practically replicating his game from a day before, Bericoto followed up his throw with an almost identical homer — also 445 feet to center field — to drive in the final two of five runs in the sixth.
Bericoto, as well as bench-mate Jonah Cox, each got rare starts the past two games because lefties were on the mound for the A’s. Maybe manager Tony Vitello will try to mix in more playing time moving forward.
Who’s not
Kurtz presented the biggest threat in either lineup this series.
Turns out, there was nothing to fear.
The A’s slugging first baseman came up 13 times over the course of the three games and didn’t record a single hit. The major-league RBI leader, with 61 entering the series, drove in only one run, when he beat out a would-be double play with runners on the corners in the fifth.
He struck out in his first two tries against Roupp, including with two on and one out in the third, and earned a hat trick by going down swinging with the tying run on second in the ninth.
Up next
The Giants see the Braves again after winning both games the teams played in between downpours last week in Atlanta. It will be Trevor McDonald against Reynaldo Lopez in the series opener Friday night, with first pitch set for 7:15.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
