Manager Bruce Bochy sat Buster Posey for another day, reasoning that the Giants' lineup that beat Roy Oswalt the previous night deserved to have a crack at Brett Myers.
Problem is, an Astros team that was shut down by Tim Lincecum on Tuesday resurrected with a vengeance against Barry Zito on Wednesday. Zito took his quickest exit of the season, and the Giants finally fell to the Astros 6-3 in the teams' eighth meeting of 2010.
Zito was pulled after four innings because he surrendered five run and seven hits and never kept the Astros off balance. Zito's first batter, Jason Bourgeois, singled and scored on Lance Berkman's ground-rule double, and Jeff Keppinger's three-run double in the second made it one-sided in a hurry.
The leadoff man reached in three of Zito's four innings, including the fourth - even though Zito struck out Chris Johnson. Strike three was a curve that bounced away from catcher Bengie Molina, enabling Johnson to take first base. He scored on Myers' second two-out hit of the game.
The same Myers who entered 1-for-26 with 12 strikeouts.
Myers' first hit was even more damaging. Zito issued a bases-empty walk to No. 8 hitter Jason Castro, and Myers followed with a single. Zito walked Bourgeois to load the bases for Keppinger, who smoked his double to left to clear the bases.
Before the game, Bochy explained why he didn't play Posey in consecutive games:
"He hasn't had a break. He came up here and has been grinding pretty hard. He could use a break. I gave him a day yesterday, and the way we played, I decided to give him an extra day. We faced a good pitcher (Roy Oswalt) yesterday and won the game. We're throwing the same guys out there."
Bochy said Posey will return to first base today and play the weekend's Boston series - including a starting assignment behind the plate on Saturday. Pitcher Joe Martinez still is scheduled to start that game, though he pitched the seventh inning Wednesday.
If Martinez is needed again in relief today, he won't start Saturday, Bochy said. That would mean Posey's battery mate could be Triple-A Fresno's Madison Bumgarner, who'd be pulled from his scheduled start Friday at Portland.
Martinez wasn't sharp. He yielded two singles and walked a batter but didn't allow a run.
The Giants scored two runs in the fifth on Andres Torres' RBI triple and Aubrey Huff's grounder to Keppinger at second. Heads-up baserunning by Freddy Sanchez - backtracking from Keppinger and forcing him to throw to first, too late - enabled Torres to score.
The runs were unearned because the scorer ruled a questionable error on Aaron Rowand's hard grounder past third.
Meantime, Bochy spoke of the importance of going deep into his roster and keeping guys fresh, saying it "creates a sense of oneness. You want everyone to be involved as much as you can."
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