Brandon Crawford broke a sixth-inning tie with a two-out, RBI single and the San Francisco Giants bullpen provided nine outs of perfect relief to close out an 8-6 victory over the visiting Houston Astros on Saturday afternoon.
The 21-hit affair included eight total home runs, with the score tied three different times before Crawford’s key hit.
The Giants received home runs from Donovan Solano in the second inning, Wilmer Flores in the third, LaMonte Wade Jr. in the fourth and Darin Ruf in the fifth before Crawford’s RBI hit in a 6-all tie came after Ruf and Thairo Estrada singled.
Protecting a one-run lead, Dominic Leone and Tyler Rogers worked a perfect seventh and eighth, respectively, for the Giants. Mike Yastrzemski’s solo homer in the bottom of the eighth came just before Jake McGee retired Houston in order in the ninth for his 22nd save.
The homers were the fourth of the year for Solano, 13th for Flores and Wade, 11th for Ruf and 17th for Yastrzemski.
The Astros countered with three home runs, including two by Aledmys Diaz, who had contributed one to Friday’s 9-6 victory in the series opener.
Diaz had a two-run shot off Giants starter Alex Wood in the third inning to give Houston a brief lead. His solo shot in the fifth, also off Wood, triggered a two-run uprising that drew Houston even at 5-all. Diaz has six home runs on the season.
Martin Maldonado had a solo shot, his eighth of the year, to create the game’s final tie at 6-6 in the sixth.
Jay Jackson (2-0), who allowed Maldonado’s homer, was credited with the win. Blake Taylor (2-3), who was charged with the run that scored on Crawford’s hit, took the loss.
Neither starting pitcher saw the sixth inning. Wood worked five innings, allowing five runs (four earned) and six hits while he walked one and struck out three. Houston’s Zack Greinke was pulled after four, charged with six runs (four earned) on eight hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.
Ruf had two hits and scored three times for the Giants, who out-hit the Astros 14-7. Estrada, Solano, Steven Duggar and Curt Casali also had two hits for San Francisco.
Michael Brantley scored twice for the Astros, while Yuli Gurriel had a pair of hits.
–Field Level Media