Houser gets lit up in Marlins 9-4 rout of Giants

SAN FRANCISCO — It was a night Adrian Houser would like to soon forget.

The San Francisco Giants starting pitcher was rocked for eight runs on 11 hits, including two home runs, as the Miami Marlins jumped out to a 8-0 lead after three and a half innings to win comfortably 9-4 on Friday evening at Oracle Park.

It got ugly before fans could get set down their garlic fries and overpriced IPA beers as a two-out double by Xavier Edwards got the Marlins on the board in the first inning. Houser wasn't able to limit the damage as Liam Hicks deposited a ball into the right center field bleachers for his fifth home run on the season and just like that Miami was up 3-0.

An RBI single by Graham Pauley in the second inning and then a sacrifice fly by Hicks in the third gave the Marlins what seemed an insurmountable lead with their ace Sandy Alcantara on the mound. Alcantara stymied the Giants offense was only able to muster two hits off of the veteran right-handed pitcher in the first four innings.

The big blow that would make Houser's already bad night turn into a nightmare was when ninth place hitter, third baseman Connor Norby blasted a three-run home run to deep left centerfield in the fourth inning that gave the Marlins a commanding 8-0 lead. The crowd of 38,317 patience eroded to boos and calling out Giants manager Tony Vitello to pull Houser from the game despite no one was warming up in the bullpen at the time.

Houser was able to finish the inning but not after giving up batting practice to a team that only had two wins on the road coming into the game as Miami has been pretty good at home (10-6) but terrible on the road (now 3-7). When asked to explain his struggles after only throwing 77 pitches, Houser said he felt good but just couldn't get his act together once the game started.

"(I) felt good all week, felt good in the bullpen," said Houser in a quiet Giants clubhouse. "And then got out there for the game and felt like it wasn't clicking, it was a little off and you know just going back to the drawing board, trying to figure things out. I don't think it's a big thing, I just think there's something slightly off to get things going and we'll get back on it.

Giants fans and management hope it's not a big thing as well and that Houser is able to get things going as he has yet to do that with an 0-3 record and 7.36 ERA in five starts to begin the season.

The Giants offense, which is the worst in all of baseball with just 85 runs scored, including the four from this game, finally broke through against Alcantara in the fifth inning with four hits in the inning, three of which were RBI singles by Drew Gilbert, Eric Haase, who made his first start of the season after being called up from AAA-Sacramento, and Luis Arraez.

Speaking of Arraez, he's been one of the lone bright spots on this anemic offense as he went 3-for-5 with the RBI to raise his batting average to .320 on the season. Arraez, who isn't exactly known for his speed, has four of the team's seven stolen bases to lead the Giants.

Jung Hoo Lee gave whatever Giants fans were still left in the ballpark something to cheer about as he completed the game's scoring when he hit a 364-foot home run down the right field line into McCovey Cove for his second homer of the season in the eighth inning with the outcome of the game already long decided.

At 11-15 and just a half game ahead of the Colorado Rockies for last place in the National League West, Vitello has been scratching his head looking for answers to the woeful offense and the starting pitching that hasn't found it groove yet.

"The few nights where it's been tough, you gotta leave the starter in and at the very least do our bullpen a favor and get at least four innings," said Vitello. "The three or four times that has happened, it's been a lot of hitters ahead of the count."

San Francisco has two more games against Miami to close out their six-game homestand before heading back on the road to Philadelphia and Tampa Bay for a six-game road trip.