Following a rock-solid home stand with only one loss in seven tries, the Giants got off on the wrong foot (once again) away from A.T.& T. Park. San Francisco began a mini three game road trip in Houston with a 4-3 loss to Mike Hampton and the Astros. The Giants, who fall to 21-and-32 on the road had to be feeling good after taking three of four from the Phillies, improving their home record to 37-and-16. All-Star Matt Cain was on the mound tonight, but it didn't materialize thanks to a lack of timely offense.
Cain worked 8-innings, allowed 8 hits, 4 earned runs, no walks, and 5 strike outs, falling to 12-and-3 on the season. He did make a couple of mistakes, allowing home runs to Geoff Blum and Kaz Matsui - the latter home run hitting the right field foul pole. Cain also gave up some really hard-hit balls: a couple of triples by Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn, and three hits off the bat of Carlos Lee.
San Francisco managed to bang out eleven hits, but left TEN men on base. They were able to scratch out a couple of hits and a late run of Houston closer Jose Valverde, who held on to record the save. Astros' starter Mike Hampton struck out six Giants over six innings, and lowered his ERA to 5.14 and his WHIP to 1.53 in recording his seventh win of the season. It's just another example of soft tosser like Hampton using his change up and curve ball to set up a below-average fastball and keep the Giants completely off balance.
Eleven hits is great, but you've got to cash in, and the two-out clutch hits that were seemingly plentiful at home were basically nonexistent Monday night.
On a positive note, Pablo Sandoval went 3-for-5 win an RBI, boosting his average to .327. Ryan Garko went 2-for-2 and drove in his first run as a Giant. Eugenio Velez and Edgar Renteria each had a couple of hits for San Francisco. Freddy Sanchez went 1-for-5 and scored a run on a sacrifice fly, but he still looks a bit gimpy, trying to recover from a minor knee sprain.
Speaking of Sanchez - how about a double dose on Tuesday. Jonathan Sanchez will take the mound for the Giants in game two of the series, and hopefully, Freddy Sanchez will continue to start at second base after he was activated over the weekend.
Keywords: A.T.& T. Park, Freddy Sanchez, Geoff Blum, Houston Astros, Jonathan Sanchez., Jose Valverde, Kaz Matsui, Matt Cain, Mike Hampton, Pablo Sandoval, Ryan Garko, San Francisco Giants
