• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Sosa haunts former team as Astros top Giants

Aug 26, 2011 - 6:13 AM San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - Henry Sosa pitched six innings to record his first major league victory, against the organization that traded him, helping the Astros to a 3-1 win over the Giants.

In just his fourth big league start, the 26-year-old right-hander allowed four hits and a run over six frames. Sosa (1-2), who was acquired from San Francisco on July 19 along with Double-A pitcher Jason Stoffel in exchange for infielder Jeff Keppinger, walked three and fanned the same number of hitters.

"The way he went after hitters, it was very impressive," Astros manager Brad Mills said. "The first couple times out, maybe he was just trying to get his feet wet, was trying to feel for it a little bit. Tonight he wasn't feeling for it. We saw the arm that everybody had seen at Double-A. He went right after the guys with all his pitches. He was very impressive."

Jordan Schafer homered for the Astros in the opener of this four-game series. J.D. Martinez drove in the other runs with Schafer scoring both times.

Ryan Vogelsong (10-4) surrendered six hits and three runs over 7 1/3 innings to lose back-to-back starts for the first time this season.

"Location wasn't all that great, but I tried to pitch with what I had, which wasn't a whole lot," Vogelsong admitted. "It was definitely a grind."

The loss, San Francisco's fifth in seven contests, left the Giants three games behind first-place Arizona in the NL West. The Diamondbacks won at Washington Thursday night.

The Giants have lost the opener of a series 11 straight times. That includes losing two of three in Houston last weekend, certainly not something the Giants need, falling to the team with the worst record in the majors.

Pablo Sandoval grounded out to strand a runner at second in the sixth, and Schafer recorded his first homer in a Houston uniform the following inning. Schafer, who was acquired from Atlanta as part of the Michael Bourn trade on July 31, homered to right field with two outs.

"Sometimes you fare better and get a little lucky against teams and we've played good baseball," Schafer said. "Our pitching kept us in the game and we were able to scratch a couple of runs early and the pitching did the rest from there."

Carlos Beltran singled to start the ninth against Mark Melancon, but first baseman Carlos Lee made a nifty stop on a ball hit by Sandoval. Lee stepped on the base and then tagged out Beltran in a rundown. Aubrey Huff lined out to left field, giving Melancon his 14th save of the year.

Schafer legged out an infield hit to start the game and stole second before scoring on a Martinez double to right.

Martinez added a sacrifice fly in the third before the Giants scored in the bottom half on Orlando Cabrera's RBI groundout. It plated Eli Whiteside, who was on the disabled list due to a concussion but was activated Thursday.

"We've been having good starting pitching so it's all about the offense being able to score runs," Beltran said. "Because if we're able to score runs, the pitching's there."

Game Notes

To make room on the roster for Whiteside, catcher Hector Sanchez was optioned to Class-A advanced San Jose...Houston went 1-for-12 with men in scoring position...Houston is 1-3 on a seven-game road trip...Martinez has 23 RBI in August, including nine in his last five games.