The first test of the Walker Buehler experiment was not great.
How long it lasts will be a question every time he pitches or until he is much better than in his Padres debut.
As for Monday, while the three runs Buehler allowed in the first four innings ended up being the difference in a 3-2 loss, it was only at the last possible moment that the Padres offense helped out in any way and posed any threat to the Giants getting their first victory of the season.
Both Padres runs came with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Jackson Merrill launched a two-run homer off Giants closer Ryan Walker.
The Padres’ pitching (both bad and good) and the Detroit Tigers’ excellent pitching made so that attention was diverted from an anemic Padres offense in the season’s first series.
But four games in, they have scored a total of nine runs, are batting .181 and are 5-for-26 (.192) with runners in scoring position.
Giants starter Landon Roupp, who in four previous starts against the Padres had either shut them out for at least five innings or been pummeled, allowed two hits, walked two and struck out seven over six innings on Monday.
“Our game plan is there,” Gavin Sheets said. “We just need to trust ourselves. I think we’re trying to go get results instead of just letting it come.”
Roupp might have gotten them off their plan a bit. The right-hander pounded the strike zone and had the Padres off-balance with an excellent changeup and curveball and by throwing harder and mixing in more cutters than they expected. He allowed singles to Xander Bogaerts in the second inning and Fernando Tatis Jr. in the sixth and threw 88 pitches while turning in the third quality start of the season against the Padres.
“The velo was up in the first couple innings,” Jake Cronenworth said of Roupp, who was topping 95 mph the first two innings, a couple ticks above his norm. “He was pounding the fricking zone. With the way he attacks, you’ve got to be pretty precise with how you attack.”
Buehler was not as pinpoint, at least not as his outing progressed. His first two innings were about as good as could be, but the second two did him (and the Padres) in.
“I think first two innings, when you get in good counts, good things happen,” Buehler said. “And third and fourth — more the fourth inning — get in bad counts and bad things happen.”
The 31-year-old right-hander, who signed a minor-league deal in February, made the season-opening rotation by committing during the spring to a different approach. No longer able to throw in the high 90s, he struggled the past two seasons since returning from his second Tommy John surgery. He turned this spring to more often mixing in his five other offerings.
That worked well for a time. Buehler began the game by retiring the first six Giants batters in 20 pitches, just three of them fastballs.
A curveball Buehler left up over the plate in the third was sent by Harrison Bader to the ribbon scoreboard beyond left field to give the Giants their first lead of the season on their first home run of the season.
They had scored one run in a three-game sweep by the Yankees to start the season.
They were not finished.
The first hits of the season by Patrick Bailey and Casey Schmitt, both two-out singles, gave the Giants a 3-0 lead in the fourth after Buehler had surrendered a single and walked a batter with one out.
“I feel like I took kind of the energy out of our team there giving up two in the fourth,” Buehler said.
Tatis’ single with one out in the sixth was followed by Manny Machado grounding into a double play and six more outs in succession against Giants relievers Matt Gage and Keaton Winn before Cronenworth led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk against Ryan Walker.
Tatis followed with a strikeout, and Machado grounded out softly to first base before Merrill’s homer. Bogaerts’ groundout ended the game.
