Sanchez ends road skid in Giants' 8-1 win

HOUSTON — Jonathan Sanchez earned his first road victory of 2009 almost a month after throwing his first no-hitter.

The 26-year-old left-hander snapped a nine-game road losing streak on Tuesday night, striking out eight in seven shutout innings of the San Francisco Giants' 8-1 victory over the Houston Astros.

Sanchez (5-9), who pitched a no-hitter against San Diego on July 10, held Houston to four hits, all singles. He came in 0-8 with a 6.33 ERA in nine road starts this season and hadn't won away from home since Sept. 12, 2008, in San Diego.

"I had pretty good pitches," Sanchez said. "I missed a couple and they got hit. But I had everything today. I was hitting my spots."

Freddy Sanchez and Pablo Sandoval hit back-to-back homers in the sixth off reliever Wesley Wright and Aaron Rowand drove in three runs, helping the Giants win for the ninth time in 13 games.

San Francisco's 16 hits were one shy of a season high and their eight runs was its highest total since Sanchez's no-hitter, an 8-0 victory. The Giants think the offense will produce like this more often with the additions of Freddy Sanchez and Ryan Garko in the last week.

"The team we've got now, it's going to help us score runs," said Bengie Molina, who drove in two runs. "I think we're going to be fine."

Houston starter Felipe Paulino (2-6), recalled from the minors late Monday, gave up five runs and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings. He was hit hard by the Giants for the second time in a month as Paulino allowed eight runs and nine hits on July 3 in the Giants' 13-0 win.

"I fought with my command, mostly with my fastball," Paulino said. "It's moving, but it was staying down the middle, down the middle, and they made the adjustments and hit it."

Sandoval walked with two outs in the first inning and scored on Molina's double. Eugenio Velez extended his hitting streak to 11 games with an RBI single in the second to make it 2-0.

San Francisco loaded the bases with one out in the third and Rowand drove in two runs with a single down the first-base line.

Hunter Pence led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to left, Houston's first hit. Sanchez struck out Carlos Lee and Molina threw out Pence trying to steal for a double play, and Sanchez struck out Miguel Tejada.

Sanchez felt like he pitched almost as well as he did in the no-hitter.