HOUSTON -- Excuse Brandon Crawford if he's a little overbearing and over the top at the next family gathering with his brother-in-law, Gerrit Cole. Crawford will have a lot to talk about, and with good reason.
On Tuesday in the fifth inning of the Giants' 11-2 loss to the Astros, the red-hot San Francisco shortstop took Houston's Cole deep into, of all places, the Crawford Boxes in left field at Minute Maid Park.
"We don't talk about [facing each other] a whole lot, especially our at-bats." Crawford said. "We'll talk about baseball plenty, but we don't talk about our at-bats a lot."
Crawford's opposite-field two-run home run, his fifth of the season, cut the Houston lead to 5-2. In the second inning, Crawford's single off Cole extended his hitting streak to nine games. Crawford is 18-for-32 (.563) during his streak, and 6-for-20 lifetime against Cole.

"The first time I faced him in my debut, he broke a bat and got a hit or broke a bat and got an out. He signed it and sent it over to me," Cole said. "I signed the pair of cleats that I pitched [in] tonight and I wrote [Giants announcer Duane] Kuiper's call, 'Outta here!' on the one, and then [Jon] Miller's 'Adios, pelota!' on the other one. I sent it over, try to have a little fun."
Cole is married to Crawford's sister, Amy, a former softball player whom he met on his first day of college at UCLA.