Bumgarner breaks Astros down

Bumgarner goes for his 80th career victory after winning four of his last five starts, including 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball last time out at Atlanta.

That ended the night for Kazmir (6-7), who gave up three runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The Giants will throw Chris Heston and the Astros today when San Francisco and Houston wrap up their two-game series at 3:45PM ET. The first baseman didn’t have a single homer against a left-handed pitcher this year coming into August, but four of his seven blasts this month have come against lefties.

“I don’t know if he was trying to do that”, Belt said diplomatically.

Minutes later, he completed a five-hitter with 12 strikeouts, backed by Brandon Belt’s two solo home runs that broke up a pitcher’s duel as the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros 3-1 on Tuesday night. Jose Altuve has a home run and five hits overall in 14 at bats (.357), Jed Lowrie and Evan Gattis each have decent numbers against him as well.

Kazmir, who had allowed just one earned run for a zero.

The final game of the two game series is Wednesday afternoon. He’s 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three against the Astros in San Francisco but hasn’t faced them since 2012.

The homer, which went to left field, came on a pitch down and away. He walked two and struck out three. Bochy said after the game Aoki came out of pregame work fine, and he’ll start Wednesday.

The Houston Astros just couldn’t get to Bumgarner on Tuesday as they fell to the Giants. Gattis tripled and scored on a Chris Carter single.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for the Astros. The Giants improved to 11-5. Altuve is 5-for-14 with a home run versus Bumgarner, who is 3-1 with a 2.93 ERA in four career starts against the Astros. LHP Fernando Abad also was charged with two errors in a game in 2011…. RHP Tim Hudson threw a bullpen to test his strained throwing shoulder, and the Giants will discuss their next move with him as he was eligible to be activated Tuesday…. Aoki got hit in the head by a pitch Sunday in Chicago…. Backup C Andrew Susac was relegated to a DH role in his rehab assignment for Class-A San Jose following a root canal Monday. Finally it’s starting to pay off as the youngsters for the Astros are Major League ready and playing well.

Eight pitches later, the four-game skid was over as the Giants prevailed 3-1 to stay 2 ½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers thanks largely to Bumgarner’s 12-strikeout outing.