Defensive miscue costs Giants in 3-1 loss to Astros

Reporting from ORACLE PARK

A rough offensive night coupled with a costly throwing mistake left the San Francisco Giants unable to top the Houston Astros, falling 3-1 on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.

Houston-born right-hander Jordan Hicks received the start for San Francisco, entering into the contest with a 2.82 earned run average — eighth-best in baseball.

Hicks pitched well across the first four frames, only allowing an earned run in the third when former Giant Mauricio Dubon wrapped a ground rule double to left — the first of his two doubles on the night — and later scored when Astros second baseman Jose Altuve knocked him in with an RBI groundout. 

The Astros capitalized more in the fifth when Trey Cabbage and Dubon led off the inning with two straight hits off Hicks. As a former reliever, the San Francisco righty has shown a knack for competing with runners on base, especially those in scoring position. If that means, reaching back for an extra tick or two on his fastball, he’s shown a history of doing so in his relatively short career as a starting pitcher.

Hicks locked in enough to strike out both Victor Caratini and Altuve, but Houston bizarrely managed to take the lead when Alex Bregman’s infield single resulted in a throwing error by third baseman Matt Chapman, who ranged far to his left, cut in front of shortstop Brett Wisley, and unleashed a wild throw to first to allow the two runners to score to put the Astros ahead 3-1. 

Giants manager Bob Melvin emerged from the dugout to remove his starter at 72 pitches. Tuesday was certainly a more positive outing for Hicks following his disastrous last start on Wednesday in Arizona when he tossed a season-low 3-2/3 innings with 92 pitches. 

On Tuesday, he finished the evening in better spirits — 4-2/3 innings, five hits, three earned runs and a walk with five strikeouts.

Usually a sure-handed defender at the hot corner — elite, even — Chapman’s rare error left the Giants unble to recover. They were left completely blanked by Astros righty Ronel Blanco, who allowed just three hits in six innings while striking out eight Giants.

Wisley is playing like someone who doesn’t want to be demoted to Triple-A Sacramento anytime soon.

The 25-year-old infielder continued his strong play on Tuesday when he blasted a game-tying solo-homer to right in the third inning off Blanco. Since May 23, Wisley is 17-for-49 at the plate — he’s also been a dependable defender while filling in at shortstop.

The Giants will face a few tough decisions in coming days with their infield. Shortstops Nick Ahmed and Marco Luciano have been shelved the past few weeks with injuries — Ahmed with a sprained wrist and Luciano with a strained hamstring — but they’re just about ready to be lifted from their rehab assignments with Triple-A Sacramento.

This will surely create a small roster crunch — albeit, it’s never an awful development for a team to have too many impact position players.

But Wisley’s impressive play could force San Francisco’s hand at keeping him on the roster over Luciano, who has mightily struggled defensively at shortstop this season, and Casey Schmitt.

Up Next

The series finale between the Giants and Astros is set for Wednesday with the pitching matchup featuring a couple premier aces — Framber Valdez (5-3, 3.53 ERA) will toe the slab for Houston against San Francisco’s Logan Webb (5-5, 2.92 ERA). First pitch is 12:45 p.m.

Notes

At some point, the Giants will likely need to anticipate a heavier-than-ever workload for a few of their rotation arms. Entering into Tuesday, Hicks was roughly ten innings shy from matching his career-high in innings pitched with 77 ⅔, a mark he set during his rookie campaign as a reliever with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018. Left-hander Kyle Harrison will likely face some unofficial restrictions, too. As a result, the organization has some internal reinforcements nearly ready to return from injury. Veteran Alex Cobb (shoulder) threw 25 pitches in a bullpen session on Tuesday and was showing signs of solid velocity while mixing in breaking balls. He’s set to throw another bullpen on Friday. … Blake Snell (groin) could throw off a mound on Wednesday, according to Melvin.