DENVER – For the second start in a row, Adrian Houser couldn’t get through five innings, lasting just 3 2/3 as the Giants lost their second straight game to the Rockies, 8-3, on Saturday. The defeat clinched San Francisco’s first series loss to Colorado since a three-game set at Coors Field from July 19-21, 2024.
“It was just a little bit of rhythm and timing thing in the delivery,” manager Tony Vitello said of Houser’s two walks, two hits allowed and a hit batsman in the first inning. “He made an adjustment, but at that point we were down.”
The loss marked the first time the Giants have dropped consecutive games to the Rockies since July 20, 2024. They lost the series opener on Friday night when the Rockies walked them off, 8-6, with a five-run ninth inning.
“We need to take a little more pride in how we bounce back,” Vitello said. “It's ideal to not have last night occur, but I got the vibe like we were in a position to [turn it around]. The first six outs we had at the plate would say that, but getting in a hole makes it a little tougher.”
The Giants went down 2-0 in the first and never recovered. Houser later gave up a two-run homer to right from Jake McCarthy and was gone before the fourth frame was completed.
“I felt good in the bullpen,” Houser said. “Everything was good, mechanics felt good. And then as soon as I got out on the mound, it was like I couldn't really feel anything. I was struggling to find the mechanics in that first inning. I wasn't able to execute like I wanted to tonight.”
He did make a number of adjustments that helped him feel better on the hill.
“Trying to stay tall, trying to stay in the legs, get the direction going the right way, get the hands moving a little bit quicker,” Houser explained. “Trying to keep the pace the same throughout the whole mechanics … and get it all timed up right.”
It was Houser's shortest start since Aug. 27, 2023, as a member of the Brewers against San Diego, when he lasted two innings. His 92 pitches on Saturday made him the first Giants starter to throw more than 90 pitches without completing the fourth inning since Landen Roupp did so against the Cardinals on Sept. 27, 2024.
“I take that upon myself to be a guy that goes as deep into the game as possible,” Houser said. “I try to go six innings-plus every time, and not being able to do that tonight is a big failure on my part.”
The bullpen matched Houser’s run total, yielding one run in the fifth and three in the seventh.
Sam Hentges was first out of the gate, allowing one run over 1 1/3 innings. JT Brubaker followed with a clean sixth, striking out two, and Ryan Borucki finished things up by allowing three runs on four hits over two innings.
“It's a little tough because there were only so many guys available tonight,” Vitello said. “We were basically left with a choice to go [Brubaker] after Borucki, but at some point Borucki was going to have to give us a little bit of length. So, we went with [Brubaker], and he was sharp and attacked the way you want guys to. And then Borucki basically needed to do what he did for us.”
The Giants offense was largely dormant, putting up nothing but goose eggs against Rockies starter Ryan Feltner for six innings and only breaking through in the eighth thanks to Drew Gilbert’s Statcast-projected 421-foot, two-run homer to right, the longest of his career.
Bryce Eldridge was on base when Gilbert went deep, opening the inning with a double down the right-field line after successfully challenging a called strike against him.
“It's definitely frustrating, but that's just how this game goes,” Eldridge said. “They had a bunch of soft hits, and we couldn't get anything going.”
Eldridge launched a liner in the second that he thought was out of the park, but it was blown back 11 feet, per Statcast, and ultimately caught at the wall by left fielder Sterlin Thompson, who struggled to keep up with the ball in the swirling wind.
“We got beat by more than a couple of runs, but it just was two innings of hard contact with nothing to show for it,” Vitello said. “After those [first] two innings, it ended up being a little bit of a blank feel for us.”