Flores, Ramos' hot starts reminiscent of Mays

HOUSTON -- If your name is being linked with Willie Mays, things must be going well. Six games into a season showing great promise for the Giants, that applies to two San Francisco hitters.

Buoyed by a two-run homer from Wilmer Flores and a two-run double from Heliot Ramos, the Giants on Wednesday completed a three-game sweep of the Astros at Daikin Park with a 6-3 victory that completed a 5-1 trip to begin the year.

Flores started things quickly by tagging Astros starter Framber Valdez with his fourth home run of the season in the first. That made Flores the seventh Giant with four home runs in the first six games of a season. Mays made two claims to that feat, homering a club-record six times in the first half-dozen games of 1964 and four times in 1971. Flores’ four homers also match his 71-game total for 2024, when he played his last game July 23 before undergoing surgery to address tendinitis in his right knee.

“I’m just trying to hit the ball hard,” Flores said. “I’m feeling good. I’m feeling healthy.”

Explaining before the game why -- with LaMonte Wade Jr. out of the lineup -- he gave Casey Schmitt the start at first base and made Flores the designated hitter for the fifth time this season, Giants manager Bob Melvin said Flores simply “knows how to DH.”

“Wilmer’s done this over the years where he knows how to process in between at-bats and how to keep himself ready. Sometimes younger guys have no idea how to do it. … It’s an acquired taste,” Melvin said.

“It’s not easy, but I try to find a way to stay loose,” said Flores, one of five MLB players with at least 10 RBIs in the early going. “It’s like pinch-hitting four times. It’s hard, but I try to find ways.”

Ramos’ double off Valdez in the second inning gave the Giants a 5-0 lead. It also gave Ramos an extra-base hit in each of San Francisco’s first six games, matching the club-best feat of Felipe Alou in 1963. Mays (1971) is the only other Giant with an extra-base hit in the first five games of a season.

“It’s insane to me to be part of that company,” Ramos said. “Those are legends.”

Luis Matos also homered for the Giants, and Wade produced their final run with a pinch-hit homer in the eighth, his first hit after an 0-for-16 start to the season.

In sweeping the Astros for the first time since 2012, the Giants are off to their best start since they were 5-1 in 2014.

“This is a tough building to get a sweep in,” said Melvin, whose 1,602nd managerial victory tied him with Fred Clarke for 22nd place all time. “The add-on run by Wade was huge.”

Wade’s homer came after the Astros had cut the gap to 5-3 against Giants starter Landen Roupp, who in his first start of the season allowed four hits and four walks and struck out eight.

Roupp departed with the bases loaded and no one out in the fifth. Between two walks in the inning, the right-hander was hurt by a Jose Altuve popup that dropped near home plate among three fielders.

“Obviously, my ball,” Roupp lamented after the game. “I’ve got to get to the ball and catch it.”

“Usually, he’s a little more efficient at throwing strikes,” Melvin said of his starter. “I think the popup [by Altuve] may have kind of, I won’t say bit him, but it’s not something you’re used to. And all of a sudden, instead of an easy out, it’s first and second and nobody out and then walk the next guy,”

Randy Rodriguez surrendered Yordan Alvarez’s two-run single -- a scorching grounder that eluded Schmitt at first base -- but escaped the jam by retiring Christian Walker on a popup to third and striking out Yainer Diaz and Jeremy Pe?a.

Hayden Birdsong allowed two hits in two scoreless innings, and Taylor Rogers and Camilo Doval retired all six Astros they faced, with Doval earning his second save.

Considering the 7-0 starts of the Dodgers and Padres, the Giants have to be happy with their first trip. Their home opener comes Friday at Oracle Park, where Justin Verlander will face the Mariners in his home debut.

“If you don’t know by now, we’re pretty good,” Roupp said. “And we’re gonna be good.”