Adrian

Houser

Houser is done for the rest of the season after suffering a forearm strain last week. The 33-year-old is under contract for next season and figures to open in San Francisco’s rotation, assuming that he doesn’t wind up requiring offseason surgery.

Houser had to leave Tuesday’s start in the second inning, and this is brutal timing for the Giants with Carson Whisenhunt (elbow) likely set for surgery. Houser had been pitching well since moving to the bullpen, so hopefully this is not a long-term injury for the 33-year-old.

Houser started shaking out his arm after a pitch in the second and made no attempt to stay in afterwards. The veteran was making his return the rotation tonight after more than two months in the bullpen. It was very poor timing for the Giants, who also had Monday’s starter, Carson Whisenhunt, leave early with what turned out to be a very serious arm injury.

Perhaps it’s only fitting that Houser would turn in one of his strongest starts of the year against the club that made him a second-round pick back in 2011. The 33-year-old veteran allowed just two hits and one walk, but was forced to settle for a no-decision after San Francisco’s bullpen coughed up the lead following his departure. He’s operated in a swingman-type role for the Giants over the last few weeks and made his first traditional start in nearly two months. He’s under contract through next season, so it makes sense for San Francisco to keep rolling him out there over the final six weeks. He’ll get the ball for his next outing against the Guardians on Wednesday.

Houser struck out four batters on the evening while allowing one base on balls. The lone tally against him came on an RBI single off the bat of Zach McKinstry with two outs in the second inning. Aside from that, Houser was brilliant. He generated five swings and misses on 82 offerings in the ballgame, posting an underwhelming CSW of 23 percent. Now 3-7 on the season, he’ll tote a 4.55 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and a 65/31 K/BB ratio (97 innings) into Wednesday’s tilt against the Astros.

Brubaker has been a long reliever this year so he could deliver more than an inning here. It appears likely that the 33-year-old with a 3.17 ERA will be a bridge to Adrian Houser.

Mahle, who is on a one-year, $10 million deal, is 3-9 with a 5.13 ERA for the season, but he has been solid of late, amassing a 3.79 ERA in his last seven turns. Molina is a fringe 40-man roster guy, so this is mostly a salary dump for the Giants. The Giants still figure to trade Robbie Ray, too, and they just lost Trevor McDonald for the rest of the season, so things could get ugly with their rotation the rest of the way. Most likely, Adrian Houser will slide back in as a starter, assuming that no other team wants to take on his contract.

Houser has really struggled through his first 14 starts on the season, posting a 5.73 ERA, 1.58 WHIP and a 48/25 K/BB ratio over 66 innings. Any fringe fantasy value that he may have had in deeper mixed leagues or NL-only formats evaporates on this news. That means that Trevor McDonald will remain in the Giants’ rotation going forward.

Houser’s 29-pitch first inning saw him give up a long homer to Drake Baldwin and another run on a Mauricio Dubón hit. Because it was such a short outing, the Giants could try putting Houser back into the pitching mix in a couple of days, if they see the need. If they stay with the current rotation, he’d pitch Sunday in Miami.

It’ll be resumed on Wednesday afternoon in the second inning. The rain kept falling throughout the early stages of this contest at Truist Park and both teams waited through a nearly two-hour rain delay before the plug was finally pulled. Giants starter Adrian Houser allowed two runs in his lone inning of work while Atlanta’s Grant Holmes was charged with three runs over two innings. It’s also worth noting that Drake Baldwin launched a legendary 473-foot homer in his return from the injured list prior to the delay.