Adames leaves early with back spasms as Giants lose to Astros

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Aug 12, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants have already lost their starting third baseman and promising young catcher for the rest of the season. Now, the team is looking at the possibility of its starting shortstop missing time.

Despite Adrian Houser’s excellent start, the Giants lost 2-1 to the Houston Astros on a pair of sacrifice flys Wednesday afternoon as shortstop Willy Adames came out of the game due to back spasms.

Adames appeared to tweak his back — which had been bothering him for several weeks — in the top of the seventh. With no outs and a runner on first, the Astros’ Isaac Parades hit a grounder at Adames that was a tailor-made double-play ball.

Instead of delivering a strong throw, Adames lobbed the ball to second baseman Osleivs Basabe. Basabe’s relay to first wasn’t in time to catch Paredes. After the play, Adames tried stretching out his back.

On the very next play, rookie left fielder Victor Bericoto dropped a routine fly ball, allowing the Astros to put runners on second and third with no outs. When manager Tony Vitello made a pitching change, Adames briefly met with a trainer but stayed in the game. The Astros took advantage of Bericoto’s error and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly.

Adames then led off the bottom of the seventh, popping out and jogging gingerly back to the dugout. He was then lifted for a defensive replacement.

Taylor Trammell led off the eighth inning with a triple off the right-field wall off Keaton Winn, then Nick Allen hit a deep sac fly to Bericoto in left, bringing Trammell home for the winning run.

Adames’ injury overshadowed Houser, who pitched six scoreless innings with five strikeouts while allowing just two hits in his return to the rotation.

The Astros gifted Houser a ridiculous 6-5-4-5 double play in the top of the sixth thanks to questionable baserunning by not one, but two runners.

With one out and a runner on second, Jeremy Peña hit a soft broken-bat line drive that Adames picked out of the dirt. Nick Allen, the runner on second, bolted for third and found himself in a pickle when Adames threw to third baseman Christian Koss.

Koss chased Allen before flipping to second baseman Basabe, who applied the tag for the second out. Peña tried to sneak over to second, but Basabe turned around and threw to Koss, who had the presence of mind to cover second. Koss applied the tag, the inning was over and Houser was fired up.

Houser’s first stint as a starter with the Giants was objectively awful. Over 14 starts, Houser was 2-6 with a 5.73 ERA and 5.31 FIP over 66 innings before being demoted to the bullpen. The Giants didn’t envision Houser being a bullpen arm when they signed him to a two-year deal, but it made more sense to explore other avenues.

The right-hander pitched mostly in a bulk-inning role as a reliever, and found the success that eluded him as a starter. Over nine relief appearances, Houser had a 2.03 ERA (3.82 FIP) over 31 innings. Wednesday was his first start back in the rotation, and he took advantage.

With the Giants out of contention and Houser under contract for 2027, it would make sense for the team to keep Houser in the rotation the rest of the way and see what they have. The rotation will be a point of emphasis for San Francisco in the offseason, and getting another extended look at Houser could provide clarity as to how they should proceed.

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