When you trade a back-up catcher in Chris Stewart for a George Kontos, how good to you expect that reliever to be? I would think a sub-4.50 ERA would be a fair estimation, but Kontos (and his defense) gave the Giants a 2.47 ERA in 44 G in 43.2 IP. A right-handed pitcher, Kontos actually saw better numbers against the left-handed hitters: a .164/.246/.222 and .218 wOBA from them versus a .227/.267/.385 and a .281 wOBA when he battled against same-sided hitters. As 36.1 of his 43.2 IP were gauged as “low leverage” by Fangraphs, maybe it is a credit to manager Bruce Bochy and his staff as for when Kontos was used, and it should come as no surprise to the people that Bochy knows how to use a bullpen now.

Not a bad rookie campaign from Kontos, who is under team control through 2018, and should continue to figure as one of the relief men before the core corps of Romo, Casilla, Affeldt, and Lopez, and should one of them go down with an injury, if Kontos continues his success, no one would be surprised to see him get the call to provide some short-term relief work in higher leverage situations than what he was used to dealing with in 2012.

It wasn’t all doom and despair though, so we’ll allow Zito his atrocious outing since, for the most part, he’s been leaps and bounds better than previous season in a Giants uniform.

August 29, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher George Kontos (70) pitches in the third inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-US PRESSWIRE

The story of the night was really George Kontos, who replaced Zito in the third and pitched 2.2 inning. Why is he the story? Well, aside from picking up Zito’s slack and giving some long relief, he earned his first big league win last night (and had a beer bath after the game). Congratulations, George Kontos!

Not to be over looked, was Hunter Pence, who spent the majority of his big league career in Houston. Pence probably made the Astros faithful (do they exist?) cringe just a little when he hit a monster 3-run home run in the first inning off of Dallas Keuchel.

Pablo Sandoval contributed an RBI single in the first, scoring Angel Pagan. And Kobe Bryant Joaquin Arias, who has been on fire lately, hit a triple in the sixth, scoring Pence and Sandoval. All the starting position players earned hits with the notable exception of Buster Posey, who was 0 for 3 with a walk, and Brandon Belt, who was 0 for 4.