First pitch: Tuesday, 8:10 p.m. ET
Line: Houston -155, San Francisco +145, Total: 8

The defending champion San Francisco Giants head to Houston and start a quick two-game set against the AL West leading Astros on Tuesday night.

The every other season rule of the Giants being the World Series winner looks to be in full effect as they currently sit at .500, 5.5 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers. There has been a resurgence lately, though, going 7-3 since the start of May with series wins against the Angels and Padres. Most recently they played four contests at home against Miami and split, two games apiece, while being outscored 15-13. They evened the series with a 3-2 victory on Sunday afternoon, scoring twice in the ninth and getting a walk-off single from SS Matt Duffy (.273). With two hits in the game, 1B Brandon Belt (.306) continued his hot hitting, but has not shown his usual power with zero homers on the year. The Astros have been the most surprising team in 2015 as they lead the AL West by five games after a string of some of the worst seasons in baseball history. Unfortunately, they have cooled down in the past two series, going 2-5 against divisional opponents. They were swept by the Rangers before splitting four games with the Angels, failing to get the series win on Sunday with a 3-1 loss. The offense had a putrid one hit in the defeat and was mowed down a total of 11 times. Last year’s winner of the batting title, 2B Jose Altuve (.338), has actually slowed down from his torrid start of late, going 5-for-22 (.227) over his last six outings. The pitching matchup for this game will have RHP Chris Heston (2-3, 3.38 ERA) of San Francisco take on RHP Collin McHugh (4-0, 3.23 ERA) of Houston. It has not been a successful year on the road thus far for the Giants as they are 5-7 when away from home as they take on this Astros group which is just 8-8 in front of their fans. These two clubs have not faced each other in recent years and the last time they did was 2012 as San Francisco took 8-of-9 games against a Houston group which was at the bottom of the league. Trends show that the Giants are 43-25 (.632) after two straight games where they committed no errors in the past two seasons as Houston has gone 27-14 (.659) after six consecutive games against division rivals in the same timeframe. Missing for San Francisco in this one continues to be OF Hunter Pence (Arm) as the Astros will be without the services of OF George Springer (Concussion) and SS Jed Lowrie (Thumb).

Heston has made his way through the minors with solid, yet unspectacular seasons, to crack the thin San Francisco rotation this year and has shown great results thus far. He already has four starts where he’s gone at least six innings and allowed one or fewer runs, but also is susceptible to a blow up outing, giving up 11 runs on 22 hits over 10.1 frames in his other two starts. His control has been spot on with a mere 2.4 walks per nine innings as he’s let just two balls leave the park in 37.1 innings on the mound (0.48 HR/9). He’s yet to face the Astros in his young career, but will need to be careful when going against the quartet of 3B Luis Valbuena (.202), OF Evan Gattis (.183), OF Colby Rasmus (.239) and 1B Chris Carter (.151) who have combined to hit 24 home runs, but also have horrible averages and strike out a ton. The worst of the bunch has been Carter who has struck out in 38.8% of his at-bats, second-worst in the league only to 1B Chris Davis of the Orioles. The bullpen for the Giants has done its job so far, going 6-2 with a 3.23 ERA (1.29 WHIP) and are 9-for-11 in save opportunities. Santiago Casilla (1.88 ERA, 8 saves) has pitched 5.2 scoreless innings coming into this contest, but has blown two saves in his last five attempts.

McHugh has been a stud for the Astros in the early going as he is piggy-backing on a great first full season with Houston in 2014 when he compiled a 2.73 ERA and struck out 9.1 batters per nine inning in 25 starts. His club has won in each of his six outings as he’s gone at least six innings in 5-of-6 starts. He isn’t striking out quite as many batters (7.6 K/9) in 2015, but has improved on his already impressive control with a mere 1.6 walks per nine innings. His only struggle has been the long ball as he’s allowed five home runs in his 39 innings (1.15 HR/9). McHugh has not had a start against the Giants in his career and surprisingly, the player that he will need to keep an eye on the most is SS Brandon Crawford (.253) who leads the team with five HRs and 16 RBI. Also doing well has been 1B Buster Posey (.287) as he has four long balls of his own and only strikes out in 10.5% of his at-bats. Little power has been shown by the rest of the club as only SS Joe Panik and OF Justin Maxwell have multiple round-trippers while the team ranks 3rd-worst in the league in the category. The Astros bullpen has been phenomenal while going 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA (0.81 WHIP) and have successfully saved 11-of-15 games. Luke Gregorson (2.57 ERA, 7 saves) has been out due to a family emergency lately but hopes to be back for this one, but if he cannot go, Chad Qualls (3.97 ERA, 3 saves) will get the call.