© Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
The day will be one to remember for Giants fans. The game that was played will be one to forget.
The most talked about Giants player of the night was the one that wasn’t in the state of California, as all the chatter pregame was about incoming former MVP Kris Bryant, the biggest trade-deadline splash Farhan Zaidi and Co. have made in their young tenure at the helm.
Maybe the Giants (64-39) players had their minds on the incoming cavalry, because it was a lackluster performance all around on Friday and fell to the Astros 9-5.
Kevin Gausman (9-5) had a weird start against the Astros, who visited Oracle Park for the first time since their 2017 cheating scandal was unearthed in early 2020.
A lengthy first inning doomed his outing. It took 22 pitches for the Colorado native to record an out, and 43 to retire the side, but not before the Astros notched two in the top of the frame with a smattering of singles and walks.
The damage on the scoreboard could have been worse, but the damage to the pitch count was already done.
The NL’s All-Star starter did settle into the game after that. He made it to the fifth inning, striking out nine in the process, the only other run coming from a Jose Altuvé solo shot shortly before Kapler pulled him from the contest.
The Giants briefly tied the game in third inning after not reaching base in the first two. Astros starter Framber Valdez (7-3) was dealing, but walked Thairo Estrada and Gausman (on four pitches) before Buster Posey ripped a double down the third base line to tie the game.
Then the 2017 NL MVP took the game over.
Altuvé had himself a night. He was heckled and boo’ed by Giants fans every trip to the plate, as was Carlos Correa, the only two Astros to receive such treatment. (It was an impressive showing from those in attendance, who showed they knew which Astros were in on that scandalous 2017 World Series run.)
At the plate the diminutive second baseman singled in the first, struck out in his second at bat (smashing his bat in the process), then hit back to back JACKS.
After smacking the aforementioned solo shot to effectively knock Gausman out of the game, he listened to a chorus of “you’re a cheater” in the 6th inning and promptly blasted grand slam to break the game open 7-2.
The Giants looked dead in the water, but Kapler’s squad kept fighting back to eventually make it a contest again.
Brandon Crawford doubled in the 6th when he lodged a ball between the fence and the padding in deep right center in front of the Astros bullpen, who eventually had to help the umpire dislodge the ball by pulling on the fence.
Crawford scored when Donovan Solano smashed a double of his own down the third base line, cutting the lead to four (7-3) in the process.
San Francisco tacked on two more in the 7th thanks to a Crawford RBI-single and a Flores sac fly, but momentum shifted back to Houston when the shift prevented an inning-ending double play and Correa doubled Yuli Gurriel home.
That made the score 8-5, Aledmys Diaz golfed a solo shot into left in the 9th, and Houston took a 9-5 lead.
The Giants made some noise in the ninth with three hits to start the inning and pushed another run across, but eventually fell to the Astros 9-6.
Friday night the Giants will try to scrub this one from their memory and go to battle again on Saturday.
Remember… help is on the way.