Madison Bumgarner dominant as San Francisco Giants whip Houston Astros - San Jose Mercury News

After his last start of the first half, a rough outing in Washington, Madison Bumgarner insisted that his vastly different home-road splits were just a coincidence. That might prove to be true for the road troubles, but it's becoming clear that there's nothing fluky about Bumgarner's strong starts at AT&T Park.

The left-hander dominated through seven innings of a 5-1 win over the Houston Astros on Friday, lowering his home ERA to 1.81. Bumgarner is 7-1 at AT&T Park this season and has won 15 of his last 18 home starts.

Bumgarner has thrown plenty of gems during that stretch, but few rank with his last two home starts: 16 combined innings, three hits, one earned run.

He cruised through a foggy night against the Astros, retiring 13 straight before Chris Snyder hit a solo homer in the seventh.

Bumgarner got plenty of early support. Buster Posey hit a mammoth two-run homer in the first inning that bounced off the concession stands beyond the center field wall and traveled an estimated 448 feet. It was Posey's 11th home run of the season but just his second at home.

The Giants opened the second inning with three straight singles, the last of which -- from Joaquin Arias -- scored a run. Justin Christian's groundout made it 4-0.

Pablo Sandoval tripled in the eighth and scored on a shallow fly ball to left after dislodging the ball from Snyder's mitt with a thunderous home-plate collision. The Giants improved to 36-14

when scoring at least four runs.

• The first game of the second half presented another sign that a timeshare might be coming at the top of the lineup. Justin Christian got the start in right field at AT&T Park and hit leadoff against Astros left-hander Wandy Rodriguez; it was Christian's third start in place of Gregor Blanco in the last five games, all of which have come against left-handed pitchers.

  "I think he has earned this," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It'll be nice to have another guy who can assume the leadoff spot when Blanco is not in there."

  Bochy stopped short of declaring that he now has a platoon situation in right field, saying that he was pleased with the set lineup the Giants put together once Blanco took over the everyday job.

  But he's thrilled with Christian's recent contributions. Christian, 32, was called up from Triple-A Fresno on June 15 when Aubrey Huff sprained his knee but got just eight at-bats in his first 18 games with the Giants. Christian started the final game in last week's series in Washington and had three hits and three runs. The next day in Pittsburgh, he had a hit, two walks and a run.

  "I liked what I saw -- I thought he threw out great at-bats and drove the ball," Bochy said. "Even against right-handers he had great at-bats. It was impressive given how much time he had had off."

  Christian's chance came at the expense of Blanco, who is hitting just .194 over his last 25 games. Christian was hitting .313 with a .389 on-base percentage entering Friday night's game. He was 0 for 4 with an RBI.

• Bochy said Thursday that struggling right-hander Tim Lincecum will be watched closely in Saturday's start and indicated that Lincecum's spot in the rotation could be in jeopardy if he struggles.

  But the table certainly is set for Lincecum to have a strong outing. He has a 3.99 ERA at home this season, compared with a 9.00 ERA on the road, and has a 1.14 lifetime ERA against the Astros.

• Injured closer Brian Wilson was at AT&T Park to hand out gloves to 1,000 members of the Junior Giants program. Bochy said Wilson, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, was still a month or two away from being able to begin baseball activities.

  "But knowing Willy," Bochy added, "he probably has picked up a ball occasionally."

• Giants hitting coach Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens was knighted by the Netherlands during a pregame ceremony. Meulens was the first major leaguer to come out of Curacao, a constituent country of the Netherlands.
• Top prospect Gary Brown picked up multiple hits in each game of Double-A Richmond's doubleheader, stretching his streak of multihit games to seven. Brown has a hit in 24 of his past 25 games, raising his average to .292 after a slow start to his first season in Double A.

  Saturday's game
  

  Houston (Lucas Harrell 7-6) at Giants (Tim Lincecum 3-10), 6:05 p.m. CSNBA

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