Giles roughed up in Astros debut; Bregman goes 0-for-2

Warren has first Cubs outing today

KISSIMMEE, Florida — Albuquerque native Ken Giles gave up two runs in one inning in his debut with the Houston Astros, who lost 3-1 to the New York Mets on Saturday.

Giles, who pitched at Eldorado and Rio Grande in his high school days, is expected to take over the closer role after he was acquired in an offseason trade with Philadelphia. The right-hander went 6-3, with 15 saves and a 1.80 ERA, in 69 games with the Phillies last year.

Houston had a 1-0 lead when Giles took the mound for the fifth inning. Eric Campbell doubled and Dilson Herrera had a run-scoring triple on Giles’ first two pitches. He walked Ruben Tejada with one out before the Mets grabbed a 2-1 lead on a sacrifice fly by Michael Conforto.

“I was just trying to work on staying around the plate kind of thing,” Giles said. “Kind of trying to do too much. I was trying to make my slider too fine, so I ran into trouble with that. Overall, I think the ball just came out of my hand really well today.”

Also, Albuquerque Academy graduate Alex Bregman started at shortstop for the Astros. He went 0-for-2 and was caught stealing. Bregman, the second overall pick in last year’s draft, hit .294 in 66 Class-A games in 2015.

What to watch today

Cubs right-hander Adam Warren starts against Arizona in his spring debut after he was acquired in a December trade that sent Starlin Castro to the New York Yankees. War- ren pitched well while working out of the bullpen and in the rotation over the past three seasons with New York.

Troy Tulowitzki leads the Toronto Blue Jays against a Houston split-squad one day after getting his first homer of the spring. Tulowitzki had one of three homers for Toronto on Saturday in a 9-6 win over the Phillies — Michael Saunders had the other two. The Blue Jays led the majors with 232 homers last season, and Houston was second with 230.

Brian Dozier and the Twins will try to build off an offensive outburst when they play at the Tampa Bay Rays. Dozier hit his first homer of the spring and Minnesota had 16 hits in a 13-2 win over a Baltimore split-squad Saturday.

Hisashi Iwakuma will make his spring debut with the Mariners, and he will be backed by two of the team’s top new relievers — Joaquin Benoit and Steve Cishek. Iwakuma nearly left the Mariners for the Dodgers this offseason, but Los Angeles balked after Iwakuma’s physical and Seattle jumped in to re-sign him. Benoit was acquired from San Diego in November to be a setup man and has battled back

soreness in camp.

With the Atlanta Braves rebuilding, there is opportunity for more experienced pitchers to fill rotation slots until the prospects are ready, and Kyle Kendrick is one such hopeful veteran. The former Phillies and Rockies right-hander goes against the Mets today. He and others are expected to hold the fort in Atlanta until the youngsters arrive. “Sometimes that wave is out by the Marshall Islands,” Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “But it’s coming.”