The Houston Astros fell the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Wednesday afternoon in Oracle Park. The win secured the series for the Giants, and the Astros fell to 31-38 as a result.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Giants sent right-hander Logan Webb to the hill for this matchup. Webb had a solid first inning, allowing one baserunner but getting out of the frame with no runs allowed.
The Astros countered with Framber Valdez, who was coming off of a complete game in his last outing. He matched Webb in the first, allowing one runner to reach but keeping the Giants off the scoreboard.
Both pitchers matched each other with zeroes again in the second, but the San Francisco offense got going in the third. Wilmer Flores came through with a sacrifice fly for an RBI, and Matt Chapman followed that with an RBI double. That made it 2-0 in favor of the Giants.
Houston would get one of those runs back in the top of the fourth, as Jeremy Pena brought one home on an infield single. That made it 2-1, but that score would not last long.
In the bottom half of the same inning, Austin Slater brought home two more on a single for San Francisco. That was followed by a sac fly from Heliot Ramos to make it 5-1 by the end of the frame. Valdez got out of that inning, but that would be the end of his day.
Webb was effective keeping the Houston offense at bay, but he did run into some trouble in the sixth. Yordan Alvarez launched a two-run homer, cutting the lead in half and getting it to 5-3. Webb finished that inning to complete his outing after six innings.
In the closing innings, the Astros could not get anything going against the Giants’ bullpen. They failed to score runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings and fell by a final score of 5-3.
BIG NUMBER: 5
Framber Valdez gave up five runs in this outing, which put the Astros behind early. The offense was not able to do enough to get the team out of that hole, and it contributed to the loss.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Logan Webb
Webb has had a solid season so far, and that continued on Wednesday. He logged a quality start, allowing three runs over six innings. He also struck out five and did not walk anyone.
UP NEXT: The Astros will have an off day tomorrow before returning home to Minute Maid Park to begin a three game series against the Detroit Tigers on Friday. First pitch in that one is set for 7:10 and you can hear it on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.