Giants at Astros
The Houston Astros have been the most surprising team in baseball to this point, and perhaps no two players have exemplified their success more than Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh. The latter of those 27-year-old undefeated starting pitchers hopes to extend the longest active winning streak in the majors to 12 when the Astros welcome the San Francisco Giants for the first of two games in Houston on Tuesday.
The Astros (20-12) tied the Minnesota Twins for the second-worst record
in the American League last season at 70-92, but have spent every day in
first place in the AL West over the last three-plus weeks and boast a
five-game lead on the second-place Los Angeles Angels. Houston is 14-2
in McHugh’s last 16 starts and looks to continue along that path against
the Giants, who have won 12 of 18. San Francisco wrapped up a 7-3
homestand by splitting a four-game series with Miami and has been
getting good pitching for most of May, holding the opposition to two
runs or fewer in six of its victories. The Giants scored two in the
ninth inning to win 3-2 on Sunday, registering their fourth walk-off
victory since opening the season with losses in 10 of their first 14
contests.
TV: 8:10 p.m. ET, MLB Network, CSN Bay Area (San Francisco), ROOT (Houston)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Giants RH Chris Heston (2-3, 3.38 ERA) vs. Astros RH Collin McHugh (4-0, 3.23)
After
posting a 2-1 record and 0.87 ERA over his first three outings, Heston
was roughed up for the second time in three turns on Wednesday,
surrendering five runs on 11 hits and three walks in five frames during a
9-1 loss to San Diego. The East Carolina alum, who is 0-2, 6.48 since his
strong open to the season, has fared much better against right-handed
hitters (.212 batting average) than left-handers (.375). Heston will
make his second career interleague start and draw the Astros for the
first time.
McHugh remained unbeaten since July 27 in his last
outing, settling for a no-decision in Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Angels
after yielding two runs over 7 1/3 innings. The Georgia native, who is
11-0 with a 2.31 ERA during his unbeaten streak, has limited to the
opposition to three runs or fewer in five of his six turns this season.
Despite pitching for the Colorado Rockies and New York Mets from
2012-13, McHugh will face San Francisco for the first time in his
career.
WALK-OFFS
1. The series will be the first between
the longtime National League West rivals since the Giants took eight of
nine meetings in 2012.
2. McHugh had dropped six straight decisions prior to his winning streak.
3.
San Francisco has yet to score more than six runs in a game and ranks
second-to-last in the NL overall with 101 runs, but is an NL-best 9-3 in
one-run contests.