For six innings, this looked like it belonged to San Francisco. Then the Astros bullpen shut the door on one end while the lineup found just enough on the other, and the Giants watched a 1-0 lead slip away in the late innings of a 2-1 loss.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| SF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Adrian Houser was the story for most of the night. The right-hander worked 6.0 innings, allowing just two hits and no runs while striking out five and walking one. He needed only 73 pitches to get through six, and for a stretch it looked like his outing would be enough to hold off Houston. It was the Astros bullpen, not Houser, that ultimately decided things.
San Francisco's only run came in the first, when Victor Bericoto singled to left and Willy Adames scored. That 1-0 edge held until the seventh, when Nelson Velázquez lifted a sacrifice fly to center that brought Isaac Paredes home and tied the game at 1-1. Houston completed the turnaround in the eighth, as Nick Allen's sacrifice fly to left scored Taylor Trammell and put the Astros ahead for good.
The Giants bullpen couldn't hold the line after Houser departed. Keaton Winn took the loss, allowing 1 run on 1 hit over 1.2 innings. On the other side, Houston starter Tatsuya Imai gave the Astros a boost of his own, working 3.0 innings without allowing a run, and the bullpen behind him — six relievers combining for 8.1 innings — kept the Giants off the board the rest of the way. Steven Okert picked up the win, and Josh Hader closed it out with a scoreless ninth for his 17th save.
The result dropped San Francisco to 50-71, extending a stretch that saw the Giants fall to a 1-game losing streak. Houston improved to 62-60 and sits atop its division. Adames, who scored the Giants' only run, remains one home run shy of 200 for his career, while Okert sits one game shy of 400 played and Hader one shy of 500.