Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame will redo soccer star’s plaque
Defending Series champs pin Giants with 11-2 road loss
HOUSTON >> Madison Bumgarner faced hitters at Minute Maid Park Tuesday, but he did not face the Houston Astros.
While Bumgarner took another big step in his lengthy rehab process, his absence from the Giants starting rotation remains a glaring issue for a team that clearly missed its ace in an 11-2 loss.
The defending World Series champs sent Gerrit Cole to the mound against the Giants, and though Bumgarner threw off the same rubber hours earlier, it was rookie lefty Andrew Suárez who earned the tough assignment of contending with the Astros lineup.
Cole entered Tuesday’s contest with a 1.75 ERA, the second-best mark in the American League behind Houston’s starter for Wednesday’s series finale, Justin Verlander.
Suárez started with a 4.88 ERA in six career Major League outings and didn’t have the command to avoid the barrels of Houston’s bats.
“I think if I execute my game plan, I should be fine but I left a lot of mistakes and I just wasn’t very good today,” Suárez said.
A healthy Bumgarner might be just what the Giants need to take advantage of a weak National League West, but the two hitters he matched up with in a live bullpen session Tuesday were teammates Gregor Blanco and Miguel Gomez. Though Bumgarner was pleased with the command of his breaking balls in a 30-pitch stint, he’s still at least two weeks away from rejoining the rotation as he’ll make his first rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Sacramento.
Suárez was the pitcher the Giants sent to the mound when the lights came on and the Astros ensured his night didn’t last long. After the rookie set down the first six hitters he faced, back-toback doubles by Evan Gattis and Max Stassi helped Houston open the scoring in the third.
Armed with a 3-0 edge entering the fourth, Houston padded its advantage with RBI singles from Stassi, the No. 8 hitter, and Tony Kemp, the No. 9 hitter, to take a commanding 5-0 lead.
“You’re going to have growing pains like this,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Suárez. “I don’t know if he backed off a little bit when they got a couple of hits but sometimes they lose their focus a little bit.”
Though Cole hadn’t allowed more than three runs in a start all season, the Giants showed signs they could rally thanks to the work of the pitcher’s brother-in-law and the hottest hitter in baseball, Brandon Crawford.
Crawford began the evening with a .444 average in the month of May and improved upon that mark with a second inning single off of Cole. Crawford saved his best swing of the night for their fifth inning showdown, as he launched a tworun home run into the left field bleachers.
Crawford’s sister Amy married Cole in November of 2016, and with two hits against his brother-in-law Tuesday, he’s now 4-for-8 against Cole since the righthander officially joined the family.
“We don’t talk about it a whole lot off the field,” Crawford said. “Especially our atbats. We’ll talk about baseball plenty but we don’t really talk about our at-bats a whole lot.”
Due to a high pitch count, the Giants only had to face Cole for the first six innings. But by the top of the seventh, the Astros’ 9-2 lead was too much to overcome.
A costly leadoff walk in the bottom of the sixth by reliever Pierce Johnson sparked a four-run inning that put the game out of reach.
With Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto out, Jeff Samardzija has struggled while neither Chris Stratton or Ty Blach is enjoying a breakthrough season. Veteran left-hander Derek Holland was a nice free agent pickup, but the Giants didn’t expect him to be more than a fifth starter.
Suárez and fellow prospect Tyler Beede were forced into action early in the year, but Beede didn’t stick and Suárez is now in danger of losing his spot when Bumgarner returns.
“He’s going to have to have his command,” Bochy said of Suárez. “Don’t give in until you have to, things like that. You keep battling a pitch at a time and that’s going to be the key for him.”