By Barbara Mason

San Francisco Giants Wilmer Flores rounds the bases after hitting a two run home run against the Houston Astros pitcher Framber Valdez in the top of the first inning. Flores is greeted by third base coach Matt Williams (9). (AP News photo)

San Francisco’s Wilmer Flores continues to hit those deep balls with teammates Luis Matos and LaMonte Wade Jr. chiming in Wednesday hitting a couple of their own as they beat the Houston Astros in a sweep, 6-3 in the finale at Daikin Park in Houston.

The Giants finished the game with six hits and six runs and it doesn’t get any better than that. It has been a great start for San Francisco who now will head home to Oracle with a 5-1 record.

Game recap: San Francisco could not have asked for a better start in this game. They got started early and kept the pressure on the Astros from the get go. Wilmer Flores continued the great series he has been having hitting a home run in the first inning with Willy Adames on base taking a 2-0 lead.

There was no letdown for the Giants hitting their second home run of the game in the second inning off the bat of Luis Matos, a solo shot giving San Francisco a 3-0 lead. There was more from San Francisco in the same inning when Heliot Ramos doubled base runners Tyler Fitzgerald and Mike Yastrzemski home and the Giants had struck again taking a 5-0 lead.

The Astros got on the board in bottom of the second inning scoring one run. Zach Dezenzo singled Jeremy Pena home for their only run of the game so far still trailing significantly 5-1. Although early in the game the Giants were putting up a great offensive effort against Astro pitcher Framber Valdez which is not an easy task. Valdez did have five strikeouts but he did allow four hits and five earned going five innings.

Houston scored two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning cutting the Giants lead more than in half 5-3 giving the Astros new life. Yordan Alvarez singled base runners Jose Altuve and Chas McCormick home. Houston still had four innings left to do some more damage but needed their defense to keep the Giants off the board in the later innings.

The Giants had five scoreless innings but struck again in the eighth inning with a LaMonte Wade Jr. home run, San Francisco’s third deep ball of the game. Relief pitching kept the Astros off the board for the final four innings and the Giants had their first sweep of the season 6-3.

Even though the Astros had more hits in the game than San Francisco they did not capitalize on those hits and their season record fell to 2-4. San Francisco now has a 5-1 season record as they now head home for their home opener on Friday night. This will be an especially special game for fans as they not only celebrate their first home game of the season but also 25 years at Oracle Park.

San Francisco starting pitcher Landen Roupp had a good game with a lot confidence. He has a great curve ball although as the innings wore on that pitch at times became predictable thus allowing those runs from the Astros. He allowed four hits and three earned runs with eight strikeouts.

Game notes: Wednesday the Giants took on the Astros in game three of their series getting the sweep after winning games one and two. On the mound for the Giants was Landen Roupp who pitched effective baseball against the Astros. The Astros starter Framber Valdez pitched five innings giving up four hits and five runs. The Giants have had a great start on this young season and kept it going in this series.

Going home to Oracle for the home opener on Friday, the Giants will welcome the Seattle Mariners to San Francisco for a three game series. The festivities are slated to start at 1:35 PM in a day-game matchup with 40,000 plus fans on hand.

Seattle will start Bryce Miller 0-1 ERA 4.76. For San Francisco Justin Verlander 0-0 ERA 3.60 looking for a better start than he had against the Reds in the 3-2 loss last Saturday, not the debut he wanted.