Overmatched

HOU 11 SF 2
The Giants corps of young arms (Andy Suarez, Pierce Johnson, Reyes Moronta, Josh Osich) was overwhelmed by the surging Astros who won for the 10th time in 13 games. The walks didn't help and the Houston lineup was 7-for-18 with RISP. The defending champs have the best pitching in baseball as well (only 125 runs allowed in 49 games, 2.55 pg) and tonight was no exception as Gerrit Cole struck out eight in his six innings. His only blemish was a two-run homer by his brother-in-law Brandon Crawford. Cole had gone exactly 7 IP in each of his previous five starts, allowing six runs total. and is one of the dominant hurlers of this still-young season. The Giants were overmatched and that's about the size of it. Jeff Samardzija and Justin Verlander tomorrow at 11:10 Pacific.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

p.s. FanGraphs decides Brandon Belt is worthy of notice. That's good. He's the definition of "under-rated" or "under-appreciated" as a ballplayer. I'm happy to see the coverage, he deserves it. He was Player of the Week after his marvelous homestand.