San Francisco – The Giants were hoping to secure their second consecutive series win after claiming the first game if this three-game series. But the Houston Astros had other plans as they held San Francisco to one run and three hits in tonight’s 3-1 loss to the Astros.
“It’s just baseball,” Hicks said. “Overall, I felt like my stuff was pretty sharp. I really liked where everything was. I feel like every run came on a ball that wasn’t hit hard. But they put themselves in a good position with a couple of doubles.”
After tying the game 1-1 in the third frame, Houston rallied in the fifth inning behind a crucial error by third baseman Matt Chapman. Trey Cabbage single to begin the frame, Mauricio Dubon followed with his second double of the night.
Hicks struck out both Victor Carantini and Jose Altuve before Alex Bregman reached first base safely after Chapman overthrew first allowing both Cabbage and Dubon to score making it a 3-1 game.
The righty hasn’t gone longer than 5.0 frames in 11 of his 13 starts this season. The only time he hasn’t reached five innings was on May 3rd at Philly when he tossed 4 frames and on June 5th at Arizona when he threw 3.1 innings.
“The past two haven’t been ideal,” Hicks said. “Not going at least five or six. But I think I’ll have a good bounce back against the Cubs, hopefully, and then just go from there. Take it one day at a time. I feel like it’s been a good process. A fun journey. We’re kind of right in the mix. I feel like we’re in a good spot and just want to keep going.”
Chapman cut off shortstop Thairo Estrada, grabbed Bregman’s grounder with his bare hand to get credit for the error. Hicks was pulled right after and lasted 4.2 innings, gave up five hits, allowed three runs, walked one and struck out 5. The bullpen took over and held the Astros from scoring any more runs.
Ronel Blanco did a great job of keeping the Giants runs to one run. Blanco went 6 innings allowed three hits one run, home run and struck out 8. But San Francisco struggled offensively, and who knows where this gam would’ve gone had Houston not of capitalized off Chapman’s error.
“He’s got good stuff,” Melvin said of Blanco. “He throws hard. He throws an assortment of breaking balls. Just enough fastballs to keep you off the breaking stuff. We just couldn’t solve him. We couldn’t make him work hard enough. He ends up throwing six innings, only one walk, eight strikeouts. It was just tough to square him up.”
Brett Wisely went yard to right field. in the third to tie the game 1-1. This is Wisely second home run of the season. He was called up from the Triple-A on May 11 and has gone 16-for-37 (.340) in his last 14 games dating to May 23.
“I think the quality of the at-bats have been good with runners in scoring position,” Bregman said. “Obviously, early in the year we weren’t as good, but we’re starting to play a lot better offensively — how we normally do.”
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