The Giants flopped against the Astros, 7-3, late Thursday for just their second loss in 11 games despite 71 1/43 dominant innings by Jason Schmidt, who was denied his 17th victory by Dustin Hermanson’s third blown save of the season.
After San Francisco led 3-0, Houston scored on Lance Berkman’s RBI single in the seventh and pinch-hitter Morgan Ensberg’s grounder in the eighth. Beltran and Jeff Bagwell led off the ninth with singles.
Berkman followed with his 29th homer. Hermanson (6-7) and Giants manager Felipe Alou were ejected when the reliever hit Jeff Kent with the next pitch.
–ASSOCIATED PRESS
Projected weekend starters
Friday: Kirk Rueter (8-11) vs. Odalis Perez (6-6)
Saturday: Brad Hennessey (2-2) vs. Jose Lima (13-5)
Sunday: Brett Tomko (11-6) vs. Jeff Weaver (12-12)
Notable: Los Angeles slugger Shawn Green will sit out Saturday afternoon’s game against the San Francisco Giants in observance of Yom Kippur. The first baseman-outfielder said he will play Friday.
Home games remaining (as of Friday): Los Angeles (3)
Away games remaining (as of Friday): San Diego (3),
Los Angeles (3)
ARMED, IF NOT READY
Lance Berkman hit a three-run homer off Dustin Hermanson in the ninth inning, and the Houston Astros rallied from a three-run deficit for a 7-3 win over the San Francisco Giants.
Carlos Beltran had three hits for the Astros, who gave their playoff hopes a big boost by scoring five runs in the ninth. The Astros are now 2 1 1/42 games behind the Cubs.
–ASSOCIATED PRESS
Projected weekend starters
Friday: Roger Clemens (18-4) vs. Doug Davis (11-12)
Saturday: Pete Munro (4-6) vs. Wes Obermueller (5-8)
Sunday: Carlos Hernandez (1-3) vs. Victor Santos (11-11)
Notable: Regardless of whether the Astros make the postseason, Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt are possible 1-2 finishers in the National League Cy Young Award voting. Entering Wednesday’s game, the two were tied for the league lead with 18 wins. Clemens’ 3.00 ERA was fourth-lowest in the league, and his .818 winning percentage (18-4) is tops in the NL. Oswalt (18-10) has an ERA of 3.59 and is 10-3 since the All-Star break.
–mlb.com
Home games remaining (as of Friday): St. Louis (3), Colorado (3)
Away games remaining (as of Friday): Milwaukee (3)
LEFTY WELLS SCRATCHED
Cesar Izturis homered and Adrian Beltre had three hits for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who survived a shaky start by Kazuhisa Ishii and beat San Diego 9-6 on Thursday night.–ap
Projected weekend starters
Friday: Brian Lawrence (15-12) vs. Mike Gosling (1-0)
Saturday: Adam Eaton (11-13) vs. Stephen Randolph (2-5)
Sunday: Jake Peavy (13-6) vs. TBA
Notable: Mark Loretta singled to center in the first inning for his 200th hit. He is the only other Padres player besides Tony Gwynn to get that many hits in a season. Gwynn did it five times, including a club-record 220 hits in 1997.
Home games remaining (as of Friday): Arizona (3),
San Francisco (3)
Away games remaining (as of Friday): Arizona (3)
