Astros face another hot pitcher

The Astros have been up against some impressive pitchers on their current road trip and tonight is no exception. Matt Cain, winner of six straight starts, will toe the rubber at A T & T Park for the Giants at 9:15 CDT. Left-hander J.A. Happ gets the start for Houston. Last night Giants’ lefty Madison Bumgarner struck out 12 Astros in 6 & 2/3 innings and hit his first career homerun en route to a 6-3 win.

Bumgarner was the second lefty in three games to have a big day against the Astros. On Saturday Chris Sale of the White Sox held Houston scoreless for eight innings to record his eighth victory of the season. As luck would have it, the Astros ran into a couple of the best young southpaws in the game in a very short time span. The Astros have had trouble against left-handers and these two guys have given just about everyone fits.

It doesn’t get any easier tonight. Cain has been light’s out this season and is finally getting enough run support to get some wins. On the other side of the coin, he is right-handed and the Astros have had some success against him in the past. Cain is 1-3 with a 4.69 ERA in seven career games against Houston. I’m pretty sure Cain hit a homerun in that one win against the Astros. I seem to remember that happening a couple of years ago. Cain drove one out of the park earlier today as well. He was one of a few Giants players to join golfer Dustin Johnson at the home plate tee box hitting golf balls over the rightfield wall and into McCovey Cove.

Johnson is in town for the PGA U.S. Open, which starts tomorrow at San Francisco’s Olympic Golf Club. Astros starter Bud Norris, who left last night’s game early with a strained left knee, could only watch. Norris, an avid golfer, was able to do his conditioning work and said the knee is still sore but he hopes to be able to pitch on Sunday in Arlington.