By Morris Phillips

It had to be the first directive, leading off the Giants’ scouting report for the Astros.   And whatever the specific plan, Madison Bumgarner and Chris Heston followed it to the letter for the first 15 of the needed 18 innings.

Don’t let one of these guys launch one.

The Astros came into Tuesday’s series finale with an objective: do anything to avoid a disastrous, 1-8 road trip that saw them lose three in Texas, three of four in Oakland and the series opener at AT&T Park.  And befitting the club that leads all of baseball in homers, they approached the plate itching for rookie Chris Heston to make a mistake.  For the AL West leaders, an obvious strategy, but with a twist.

The Astros didn’t grow impatient as the game wore on scoreless, instead they showed just the needed amount of patience.

Colby Rasmus homered off Heston in the seventh, Jed Lowrie connected off George Kontos in the eighth, and Houston starter Scott Feldman made it stand up, pitching six, scoreless innings in the Astros 2-0 win over the Giants.

“I made one mistake.  I left a fastball a little bit up there, and he made me pay for it.  Good piece of hitting and you just have to tip your cap,” Heston said of Rasmus’ game-deciding homer.

During the first six innings, Heston and Feldman were in control, pitching ahead in the count, retiring hitters, and doing their best to counter picture-perfect conditions and still air that clearly favored the entirety of the gathered sluggers.  The Astros lineup—lefty-leaning with four changes from Tuesday—had deep threats 1 through 8, and six of their eight position players already with double-digit home runs.

The Giants no doubt had their collective eyes on the outfield wall as well with Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, and the Brandons hitting 3 through 6.

But Heston and Feldman held the advantage, as the Astros drew four walks, but ran themselves out of a situation in the sixth, while the Giants were even quieter with just three hits.  Coming off the disabled list to start for just the fifth time, Feldman was done after six.  Bochy, no doubt encouraged by Heston’s outing after two subpar ones, let his starter continue into the seventh.

That’s where Heston ran into Rasmus.

In the fourth, Rasmus had drawn a walk on Heston after falling behind 0-2.  The at-bat consumed eight pitches and loaded the bases for Evan Gattis, but the slugger grounded out to end the inning.  Little accomplishd, but likely Rasmus had seen all that Heston had to offer.

In the seventh, Heston’s 0-1 fastball was up and Rasmus launched it—one bounce on the outer walkway and into McCovey Cove.

Then in the eighth, Jed Lowrie, the least slugger for Houston with just four bombs coming in, got a hold of Kontos’ offering where he took a little off a 3-2 pitch, and Lowrie, feeling healthier after dealing with issues from surgery on his hand, put a little on.

“I feel that was bigger than mine.  A big at-bat,” Rasmus said of Lowrie’s shot.  “Proud of him.”

The loss was the Giants fifth in their last six games, and after the Dodgers shutout the Nationals Wednesday night, they find themselves 3 ½ games behind the division leaders.  The Cubs also won Wednesday, 3-2 over the Brewers, so the Giants trail Chicago by 4 ½ games in the hunt for the second wild card spot.

The Astros improved upon baseball’s best interleague record, moving to 11-3 in 2015.  Houston has hit 158 home runs and they are 39-7 when they hit more than one in a game.  The Astros haven’t been eight games over .500 and in first place this late in a season since 2003.

Nori Aoki experienced post-concussion symptoms during the game and was taken out in the fourth inning, replaced by Justin Maxwell.  Bochy hinted that the setback could land the veteran hitter on the disabled list.

The Giants continue their homestand on Thursday at 7:15pm when Stephen Strasburg matches up with Ryan Vogelsong.