SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Zito earned his sixth win of the season and the San Francisco Giants added to an already rough afternoon for the Astros, beating Houston 4-3 Sunday for a three-game sweep.
Several Houston players were forced to walk to AT&T Park when taxis in San Francisco declined to take them because of the Bay to Breakers foot race that was also taking place. Those who did manage to catch a ride spent almost an hour getting to the ballpark from the Astros team hotel, which was less than two miles from the stadium.
Aaron Rowand hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning. Andres Torres homered, doubled and scored twice for the Giants, who have won eight straight games against the Astros dating to 2009.
Zito (6-1) rebounded nicely from his only loss of the season, scattering six hits over seven innings while striking out four with one walk. The curveball specialist pitched out of jams much of the afternoon, most critically in the seventh when he got pitcher Brett Myers to ground out with the tying run on second base.
Carlos Lee homered for Houston, which has lost three straight following a season-high four-game winning streak.
Zito was the first left-handed starter Houston has faced since April 23. He retired 15 of 16 batters during one stretch, the lone blemish being Lee’s solo home run leading off the fourth.
Lee’s home run was the first allowed by Zito this season.
Jeremy Affeldt pitched the eighth and Brian Wilson worked the ninth for his ninth save in 10 tries, though it was dicey. Wilson recorded the first two outs, gave up back-to-back singles to Tommy Manzella and pinch-hitter Cory Sullivan and struck out pinch-hitter Kaz Matsui.
Houston, which scored only three runs total in the first two games of the series, broke out of its collective slump but the Astros still came up on the short end and dropped to 1-20 this season when scoring three runs or less.
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Lee had two hits and Hunter Pence had an RBI double off Zito in the first but that was about the extent of Houston’s offense.
Myers (2-3) gave up five hits and matched his season high of seven strikeouts over eight innings.
After Houston got a run in the top of the first, San Francisco answered quickly on Torres’ first home run of the season.
The speedy utility outfielder, making his seventh straight start in place of injured left fielder Mark DeRosa, hit a fastball that sailed over the wall in right field and bounced into McCovey Cove to drive in Rowand, who had walked leading off the inning.
Lee, who was ejected for arguing balls and strikes on Saturday, tied the game with a solo home run in the fourth but Myers couldn’t hang on.
He gave up a leadoff homer to Rowand in the sixth and Torres followed with a double. After moving to third on Bengie Molina’s soft single to center, Torres scored on a wild pitch by Myers to make it 4-2.
Houston cut the deficit in half on Kevin Cash’s two-out RBI double in the seventh but San Francisco’s bullpen shut the Astros down the rest of the way.
NOTES: The Giants planned to reevaluate DeRosa (hand) after the game and may place the veteran utility player on the 15-day disabled list, though manager Bruce Bochy said he is encouraged by DeRosa’s progress. ... Houston CF Michael Bourn, who had three stolen bases and scored the team’s only run on Saturday, was given the day off by manager Brad Mills. ... Zito had not allowed a home run in 56 2-3 innings before Lee’s blast in the fourth. ... Cash’s double in the seventh was his first hit of the season. He was making a rare start in place of Astros catcher Humberto Quintero.
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