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After capturing the Opening Weekend series over the New York Mets, the Houston Astros stayed in the friendly confines of Daikin Park as they welcomed back Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants on the night Houston unveiled their newest alternate uniform. Wilmer Flores got a three-run homer in the middle innings, and Matt Chapman got late insurance in a 7-2 victory for the Giants.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
San Francisco got the first run of the contest in the second inning when Patrick Bailey struck out, but Heliot Ramos stole second. Next batter was Wilmer Flores, who got an RBI single to score and put the Giants up 1-0.
Houston continued to struggle with offense as they had just one hit in the first three innings of play as Houston native Jordan Hicks had a great outing for his first start in his hometown. For the Astros, Ronel Blanco did a nice job of keeping San Francisco at bay as well and gave the Houston lineup a chance.
In the fifth, things changed on a sacrifice fly from Lamont Wade Jr to score Mike Yastrzemski and make it a 2-0 lead for the NL West squad.
After a leadoff walk in the sixth, Blanco was replaced by Wilson Contreras, who walked Bailey before Flores got his second, third, and fourth RBI of the contest with a three-run blast to the Crawford Boxes and made it a 5-0 game.
The Astros continued to struggle at the plate in the debut of their brand new City Connect 2.0 uniform as they didn’t get another base hit until the bottom of the eighth when the inning started with Cam Smith getting hit by a pitch. Jose Altuve then reached on an infield single, and then new Astro Isaac Paredes hit a two-run double off the left-field scoreboard to make it a 5-2 contest heading into the ninth.
In the ninth, the Giants got their two runs back with a walk to Willy Adames, a single from Lee, and then Matt Chapman got a two-run bloop single to increase the lead to 7-2.
Jeremy Pena reached via a two-out walk in the bottom of the ninth, but a key strikeout to Cam Smith ended things with a 7-2 final score.
BIG NUMBER: 3
The Giants’ pitching staff held the Astros lineup to just three hits in the contest, with two of them coming in the eighth inning and the first came right in the first inning.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Wilmer Flores
The Giants’ DH got four of the five runs in on Monday night, including the big three-run blast that put his team ahead 5-0.
UP NEXT: Game 2 of the three-game series between the Astros and the Giants is set for 7:10 p.m. Tuesday night. Astro Launch is set for 6:40 and can be heard on NewsTalk 98.5.
