HOUSTON — It was tough to spot the contender over the weekend at Minute Maid Park, which doesn’t speak well for the Giants. Their opponent was on pace for a 108-loss season.

But there is no mistaking Pablo Sandoval’s All-Star swing.

A beaten-down Kung Fu Panda delivered when nobody else could, lifting a two-run home run to the opposite field in the 11th inning that sent the Giants to a 6-4 victory over the Houston Astros on Sunday afternoon.

Although his right shoulder remained too sore to swing right-handed, the switch-hitting Sandoval mustered up the difference-maker off right-hander Mark Melancon, and local boy Brandon Belt popped a three-run homer as part of a career-best, four-hit afternoon.

The Giants used six pitchers and every last muscle fiber to avoid being swept in three games by the team with baseball’s worst record. Most vitally, the victory allowed the Giants to inch within 1½ games of the N.L. West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, who lost their fifth consecutive game.

For all their whirlwind of injuries on a dripping, disappointing, challenging and grueling 4-6 trip, it wasn’t a widow-maker. The Giants return home trailing Arizona by just a half-game more than when they left the cooler climes of AT&T Park.

Torture? Sure. But there’s a different one-word motto this season: survival.

“The best way I can put it is, we survived,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who looked as if he needed his vitals

checked. “It wasn’t great by any means. To win the last one, we survived it. We’re not too far back, for which we’re fortunate. We know it.

“That’s one of the hardest-fought wins I think I’ve ever been involved in.”

It started off promising enough. Belt hit his three-run shot in the second inning to delight his friends and family, many of whom wore T-shirts with a baby giraffe — his clubhouse nickname — and a “Keep Belt Awkward” slogan.

“I was hating life yesterday,” said Belt, who was 0 for 4 and once lost track of the outs Saturday. “I was so eager to see all my friends and family, and I didn’t do so good. I came in today and just wanted to clear my head and put the bat on the ball. If I can keep it that simple, that’s when I’ll be at my best.”

Belt’s home run off former minor league teammate Henry Sosa was the Giants’ first three-run shot since Brandon Crawford hit one July 2. Before that, they hadn’t hit a three-run homer since Freddy Sanchez on June 2.

In addition to filling their monthly quota, the homer provided a margin that had been safe all season. The Giants entered the game 32-0 whenever they held a three-run lead.

It wasn’t that easy, though.

For all the offensive ineptitude that Bochy has witnessed this season, nothing turns his size 81/8 cap into a pressure cooker more than when his pitchers issue walks. Spot starter Dan Runzler issued three of them, including one to Sosa, and checked out in the middle of Houston’s four-run second inning.

“Now you’re beating yourself,” Bochy said. “We knew it’d probably be a bullpen day, but I didn’t think we’d start in the second inning.”

Belt’s single contributed to the Giants’ tying rally in the fourth, when Mike Fontenot’s sacrifice fly scored Nate Schierholtz.

But the Giants couldn’t push ahead. An invisible force field seemingly kept them from breaking a tie as they stranded seven runners over the seventh, eighth and ninth innings — with each missed chance more calamitous than the previous one.

Sandoval, batting lefty-on-lefty, struck out to strand two runners in the seventh. The Giants also saw Schierholtz thrown out trying to score on a moderately deep fly ball in the eighth; Schierholtz flied out with the bases loaded in the ninth.

But the Giants bullpen held firm. Jeremy Affeldt survived a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth to force extras and give Sandoval another chance.

A day earlier, Sandoval said he felt “like (crap).”

And now?

“I still do. I’m tired,” he said, nursing a badly bruised foot, too. “I just look for one pitch. I got it. This is for us. It’s important for us.”

Bochy said nobody needs Monday’s day off more than his All-Star third baseman.

“Well, early on he looked like he felt,” Bochy said. “You know I love Pablo. Those last two at-bats were good ones. That’s what you hope your 3-4 hitter does for you late in a ballgame.”

Late in a season, too — one in which the banged-up Giants, amazingly, are still relevant.

“We’re strong,” Sandoval said. “We’ve got a new team. Guys are playing hurt. The team we’ve got, if we keep playing like we did early, we’ll do a lot of things. We can get there again.”

For more on the Giants, see Andrew Baggarly’s Extra Baggs blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs.

Sanchez is scheduled for another rehab start

Philadelphia Phillies aces Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee aren’t the only notable pitchers scheduled to miss the highly anticipated NLCS rematch series that begins Tuesday, when the Giants arrive at Citizens Bank Park.

Jonathan Sanchez won’t pitch in Philadelphia, either. Giants manager Bruce Bochy confirmed that he wants Sanchez to make one more rehab start for Triple-A Fresno and stretch his pitch count beyond 100 before the coaching staff would look at ways to work him back into the rotation.

It’s a frustrating decision for Sanchez, who said his arm felt good while striking out eight in five innings for Fresno against Colorado Springs on Friday. Even though Sanchez won the N.L. West clincher for the Giants in last year’s regular-season finale, for the moment, he feels like the odd man out.

“I don’t think I’ll pitch till September,” said Sanchez, shaking his head. “What are you going to do? I’m ready, but everyone is pitching good. I can’t say anything, you know?”

Sanchez said his biceps tendinitis, which affected his arm speed, wasn’t an issue as he threw 85 pitches against Colorado Springs. He made a mechanical tweak, moving his glove closer to his body in his delivery, in an effort to keep his arm from dropping. He said he’s throwing more strikes as a result.

Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Matt Cain are scheduled to pitch in Philadelphia. The

Phillies are listing young right-hander Vance Worley, Cole Hamels and Kyle Kendrick as their probables.

Symbolically, Tim Lincecum walked to the mound against Cincinnati on Saturday as the Giants’ last line of defense against the forces of panic and despair.

It’s not quite fair to pile all that responsibility upon anybody’s shoulders in any single game in June, but there it was.

Freddy Sanchez had just gone down to a serious shoulder injury. Buster Posey has been down and out for a few weeks, of course.

The season is still young, and the Giants are still clinging to first place in the National League West.

But if the Giants were going to have a chance to feel halfway good about themselves this weekend, Lincecum was the one who had to start the party music.

And it did not happen.

Instead, after the Reds’ 10-2 victory at AT&T Park, there was mostly thick silence in the Giants’ clubhouse.

“It’s not about carrying the team, it’s just being a large aspect of it, and doing your job,” Lincecum said after giving up seven earned runs in four-plus innings, one of the worst outings of his glorious career.

“And I didn’t do mine today.”

What happens to the defending World Series champions if they can’t hit, if they don’t have Posey, and if Lincecum isn’t on top of his game?

We saw it Saturday — the sense of anxiety was a tangible presence amid the murmuring and the head-scratching in the stands.

Lincecum has done so much for this franchise, when he doesn’t deliver, the air gets mighty arid.

“I

know it looked bad today,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We were off. Had a horrible game. This doesn’t happen very often. It just so happens it comes right after Freddy’s injury. These guys don’t make excuses.

“These guys, they’re not making excuses. “… It’s up to us to keep fighting. And these guys will.”

Usually, the charge starts with Lincecum, of course.

But this was the fourth consecutive — and easily the worst — sluggish outing for the two-time Cy Young winner, all dating to May 21, when Lincecum shut out the A’s.

In that game, Lincecum threw a season-high 133 pitches; that also was his last start before the Giants lost Posey, Lincecum’s trusted catcher, to a devastating ankle injury in late May.

In his four starts since, Lincecum has a 7.66 ERA, and his season ERA has gone from 2.06 to his current 3.41.

Lincecum had a similarly wobbly period last August, when he acknowledged some adjustment issues going from Bengie Molina to Posey behind the plate.

By last September, though, Lincecum was in lock step with Posey and was nearly perfect through the fall.

Right now, Lincecum is about as far from his September-October dominance as he can get.

“I still feel strong,” Lincecum said. “I don’t feel unhealthy. I don’t feel like anything’s bothering me. It’s just simply getting back to being me. Just driving to the plate, using the mechanics, keeping my rhythm.

“Kind of dumbifying myself, I guess you could say “… keeping it simple.”

Lincecum was all over the place from the outset, and the Reds were disciplined enough to make him pay; he threw 73 total pitches, only 36 for strikes.

He recorded only one strikeout, which, remarkably, is the lowest total of his career. In 136 previous outings (135 as a starter) — Lincecum had never recorded fewer than two strikeouts and had averaged 7.4 strikeouts per appearance.

That 133-pitch outing, in retrospect, sticks out like a sore statistical thumb.

“I don’t feel like it’s fatigue,” Lincecum said when asked about the effects of the May 21 game. “I don’t feel like I’m getting tired. I don’t feel like anything’s broken. I just feel like it’s a matter of just getting back to being me.”

That, perhaps, could suggest Lincecum has been thinking a little more on the mound now that he’s throwing to Eli Whiteside, not Posey.

In the third inning, there might have been a sign of some disconnect — with a runner on third, Lincecum threw a darting off-speed pitch that hit the dirt but looked stoppable.

Whiteside missed the ball, it skipped to the backstop, Brandon Phillips scored, putting the Reds up 3-0 and putting a scowl on Lincecum’s face.

Has the catcher change affected Lincecum at all?

“Not really,” Lincecum said. “Not at all. I mean, when you go out there, whether it’s with Whitey or (Chris) Stewart, you have to go out there and make pitches.”

Bochy said he continues to have the utmost confidence in Whiteside but added that he might get Stewart in there with Lincecum if the schedule works out right.

You count up all of the Giants’ woes, and you do have to ask: How much has to go wrong for them to be knocked out of first place?

At some point, it probably will come down to Lincecum, the Giants’ other key pitchers, and the refortifying of their last line of defense.

Read Tim Kawakami’s Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami. Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5442.

In everywhere but the standings, the Giants seem far removed from being a first-place club.

Their lineup is decimated by injuries, their offense is nearly nonexistent, morale is challenged — if not shot — and now their anchor, Tim Lincecum, is dragging in the mud again.

Lincecum had perhaps the worst start of his career, and the Giants played with lethargy behind him, almost matching up like a Triple-A club as the Cincinnati Reds smoked them 10-2 Saturday afternoon.

Lincecum’s shoulders slumped as he allowed seven earned runs — tying his career high — and failed to retire a batter in the fifth inning. He didn’t record a strikeout after fanning Drew Stubbs to lead off the game. It marked a career low for Lincecum, who had struck out at least two in each of his previous 135 starts.

Lincecum had allowed as many as seven earned runs just once before in his career, June 13, 2007, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

This was his worst outing in what has become an alarmingly bad run. Whether you peg it to his 133-pitch complete game May 21 or Buster Posey’s season-ending ankle injury May 25, the two-time Cy Young Award winner hasn’t been the same since. He has a 7.66 ERA in his past four starts and appeared crestfallen in the third inning after Eli Whiteside tried to make a backhand stop on a wild pitch that squirted to the screen, allowing a run to score.

Whiteside, perhaps being exposed in an everyday role, also had

more issues throwing to bases.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he would look to mix in backup catcher Chris Stewart more often in order to keep both backstops fresher. He dropped a hint that he would pair Stewart with Lincecum next time, too.

“But I don’t think that plays a part in this, I really don’t,” Bochy said. “I think Timmy would tell you that, too. Buster isn’t here, but Whitey does a great job with these guys.”

Lincecum agreed, saying his problem is between his ears — not behind the plate.

“I was flying all over the place,” said Lincecum, who threw just 36 of his 73 pitches for strikes. “I need to stop thinking about what my body needs to do.

“I don’t feel unhealthy. I don’t feel like anything’s bothering me. It’s just simply getting back to being me. Just driving to the plate, using the mechanics, keeping my rhythm.

“Kind of dumbifying myself, I guess you could say “… keeping it simple.”

The Giants’ offense appears plenty dumbstruck with all the injuries to key personnel. An MRI exam on Freddy Sanchez confirmed the diagnosis of a dislocated right shoulder, but Bochy said he wouldn’t have specifics on labrum or ligament damage until the former batting champ meets with doctors on Sunday.

It was tough sledding for everyone but Reds right-hander Mike Leake, who set a career high with eight strikeouts in eight innings. Pat Burrell’s two-run home run in the ninth kept the Giants from being shut out for the seventh time this season.

“I know it looked bad today,” Bochy said. “We were off. Had a horrible game. This doesn’t happen very often. It just so happens it comes right after Freddy’s injury. These guys don’t make excuses.”

By the end of the game, the Giants featured a lineup of Manny Burriss, Conor Gillaspie, Stewart (at first base for the slumping Aubrey Huff, who was 0 for 3), Cody Ross, Nate Schierholtz, pitcher Santiago Casilla, Burrell, Whiteside and newest Giant Bill Hall.

Hall entered as part of a double switch when Lincecum was taken out in the fifth. He faced four batters in the inning, giving up an infield hit, a walk and then consecutive doubles to Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto.

Lincecum said he slowed down his motion on change-ups, which probably tipped the pitch. Unlike last August’s velocity drop, his stuff wasn’t the issue. He threw 94 mph and maintained it through the fourth inning. But his shoulder kept flying open.

“These guys have a good approach,” Lincecum said. “Obviously, they have an eye for the ball. Me being all over the place makes them simplify their at-bats.

“I don’t feel anything is broken. It’s just a matter of being me.

“You’ve seen me battle through this stuff, and we’re at the top of the division. I don’t feel we’re missing something. We just need to click.”

For now, the Giants remain in first place, largely because of their pitching and the flawed contents of the National League West.

For more on the Giants, see Andrew Baggarly’s Extra Baggs blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs.

The Giants notched another walk-off win Friday night. But, in the process, they saw another important player helped off the field because of a serious injury.

Just when it looked as if their health situation was about to improve significantly, Freddy Sanchez was added to the Giants’ already crowded 2011 casualty list with a right-shoulder dislocation suffered during a 3-2 victory over Cincinnati at AT&T Park.

The club’s standout second baseman dived for a Brandon Phillips grounder up the middle leading off the fifth inning, and although Sanchez managed to glove the ball, it was clear from the moment he hit the ground that something was wrong.

Sanchez screamed in agony after trying to brace himself with his right hand while landing hard on the outfield turf. He did not immediately get up, and when he finally did, he was clutching his right arm and could be seen mouthing “my shoulder” on TV replays. He had to be helped off the field.

“When the play was dead, I went over to see if he was all right, and he could barely get out what happened,” said Manny Burriss, who was playing shortstop when Sanchez was hurt. “When a guy can’t get his words out, that’s when I knew it was pretty serious.”

Sanchez was taken to a San Francisco hospital for treatment and is expected to have an MRI exam today. The Giants didn’t immediately know how long Sanchez might be out, but it’s safe to say it’ll be a while.

“We feel horrible for

Freddy,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s a great player we’re certainly going to miss, but we’ll have to keep fighting.”

That’s precisely what the Giants did in another late-inning thriller as they recorded their ninth walk-off victory of the season on Nate Schierholtz’s ninth-inning, two-out pinch single.

Andres Torres led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Burriss. Miguel Tejada was intentionally walked, and after Brandon Crawford struck out and Cody Ross walked, Schierholtz came off the bench and lined an 0-1 pitch into left field against reliever Logan Ondrusek for the game-winner.

Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson each pitched a scoreless inning of relief with the score tied 2-2 to set up the final at-bat victory. Wilson (5-1) got the victory.

But the Giants, who expect the return of third baseman Pablo Sandoval as well as utility infielder Mike Fontenot early next week in Arizona, now face the prospect of playing without Sanchez, their leading healthy hitter for average at .289, for an indefinite period. Sanchez has had serious shoulder issues in the past, but mostly with his non-throwing left shoulder.

“You can’t replace a guy like Freddy,” Romo said. “He’s been the most consistent guy on our team on both sides of the ball.”

Torres said: “We hope that he comes back soon, but that’s why we’re a team. We just have to continue to do our best to win games and have different people try to make up for Freddy being out. We’ve been doing it all season with other guys out.”

The Giants got another gutty, if less-than-superlative, outing from starter Ryan Vogelsong, who tiptoed through trouble during his six innings, allowing two runs. He gave up eight hits, three walks and struck out six.

Tejada had a big game for the second straight night. He doubled twice, drove in a run and scored one as he extended his hitting streak to seven games.

The Giants may not be able to afford to wait until next Tuesday to activate Pablo Sandoval, particularly if Madison Bumgarner has a vote on it.

While the rehabbing Sandoval had two hits, a sacrifice fly, a walk and two RBIs for Triple-A Fresno on Thursday night in Salt Lake City, the Giants’ anemic offense was wasting another superior performance by their young left-hander in a 3-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at AT&T Park.

The Giants managed just four hits against Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto and two Reds relievers, who pitched an inning apiece, and were shut out for the sixth time this season — and the third time with Bumgarner on the mound.

Bumgarner (2-8), who has absorbed back-to-back losses despite allowing just two runs over his past 14 innings, was stellar in his seven innings even though he wound up allowing eight hits. He didn’t walk a batter, struck out seven and escaped a pair of jams by getting double-play grounders.

But the Giants squandered three prime opportunities to score against Cueto, and not even a rare hot night by Miguel Tejada — who had two doubles in addition to two terrific plays at third base — could light a fire under San Francisco’s bat rack.

The Giants have scored three or fewer runs in six of the seven games on their 10-game homestand. In addition to their latest shutout, they’ve twice scored just one run, two more times just two. They’ve managed to win four of the seven but might have won

them all with even some semblance of a timely offensive attack.

Cincinnati struck for its only run against Bumgarner after the pitcher had struck out Joey Votto and Jay Bruce to open the fourth. Scott Rolen doubled into the left-field corner, then scored on a Jonny Gomes flare to center. Bumgarner escaped further damage when Edgar Renteria grounded out.

The Giants squandered three prime opportunities to score runs over the first six innings, starting in the first inning. Andres Torres walked to open the bottom of the inning but was thrown out attempting to steal second just before a Tejada double down the left-field line that surely would have scored Torres. Tejada advanced to third on a Freddy Sanchez groundout, but after Aubrey Huff walked, Nate Schierholtz popped up to end the threat.

In the fourth inning, Sanchez and Huff opened with back-to-back singles. Sanchez took third on Schierholtz’s fly ball to right, but Cody Ross struck out and Brandon Crawford, swinging at a 3-0 pitch, popped out to left field.

Tejada lined his second double down the line to open the sixth inning. Sanchez dropped a sacrifice bunt to move him to third, but Huff struck out and Schierholtz grounded out to thwart another excellent scoring chance.

The Reds added an insurance run in the eighth inning against reliever Santiago Casilla. After retiring the first two hitters, Casilla surrendered a double to Votto into the right-field corner. Bruce was intentionally walked and then Rolen worked a walk to load the bases. With Gomes at the plate, Casilla uncorked a breaking pitch that hit the dirt and skipped off catcher Eli Whiteside’s shinguard. The play was ruled a passed ball, and Votto scored.

Cincinnati added a run in the ninth off Guillermo Mota, who after getting the first two outs, surrendered a Chris Heisey single, a Drew Stubbs walk and a Brandon Phillips single to right that scored Heisey.

Cueto (3-2) allowed all four of the Giants’ hits but struck out eight and walked two. Nick Masset pitched a perfect eighth for Cincinnati, and Francisco Cordero earned his 12th save with a scoreless ninth.

What is more maddening? Jonathan Sanchez issuing more free passes than a comedy club or a Giants lineup as quiet as crickets?

For all the late-inning showmanship at 24 Willie Mays Plaza this season, you couldn’t blame another sellout crowd from crackling with anticipation. But there was nothing to cheer or celebrate at the conclusion of affairs Tuesday night. The Giants didn’t get a runner into scoring position after the second inning and had no heroes to spare in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park.

Sanchez, who issued five walks in five innings, fell to 4-4 this season. He did strand the bases loaded twice to keep the Giants in the game, and a stalwart bullpen held up the bargain with four scoreless innings.

But the Giants had few answers for Jordan Zimmermann, a right-hander with a deceptive changeup who might be emerging as one of the game’s better young pitchers. Relievers Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen also proved to be too tough.

“You’re not going to do it every night,” said Freddy Sanchez, who stroked Monday night’s walk-off single. “Of course we have the confidence. But they were able to close the door on us.”

After blowing through six of their seven relievers in Monday’s 13-inning victory, the Giants needed length out of Jonathan Sanchez. But asking the mercurial left-hander to pound the strike zone requires a large measure of hope.

Instead of continuing to emerge as one of the game’s better

left-handed pitchers, Sanchez is stuck in a rut, and the walks continue to come in troubling bunches.

In his past three outings, Sanchez has walked 15 over 171/3 innings.

“It’s just getting my fastball over the plate,” the pitcher said. “That’s it.”

A year after leading the National League in walks, Sanchez is topping the charts again — and it’s only getting worse. He has walked 45 in 13 starts; a year ago, he walked 34 in his first 13 outings.

The walks have come back to roost, too. He issued a pass to Laynce Nix leading off the third inning and hit Roger Bernadina with a pitch, and Ian Desmond followed with a single to center that caromed off Andres Torres’ shins to score the tying run.

The Nationals pushed ahead in the fourth after Rick Ankiel started a rally with a leadoff double. He tagged up and took third base on a deep fly out, then scored on Zimmermann’s safety squeeze toward first base.

Sanchez loaded the bases again in the fifth but struck out Nix to keep the Nationals off the board. His pitch count was at 97, though, and so it turned out to be another five-and-dive start — the seventh time Sanchez has failed to complete at least six innings.

“I worked my (butt) off out there,” Sanchez said. “I gave up two runs in five innings. I got out of innings twice. I fought out there. I battle every night.”

The Giants had every opportunity to work more late-inning magic. Ramon Ramirez, the only reliever not used a night earlier, tossed two scoreless innings to preserve the one-run deficit. Javier Lopez and Santiago Casilla each contributed a scoreless inning, too.

But the Giants had a hard time getting anything started against Zimmermann. Their best chance came in the second inning, when Aubrey Huff split the gap in left-center and heaved his lungs as he legged out a leadoff triple. Nate Schierholtz followed with a line double, signaling a big inning.

Aaron Rowand’s fly out to right field advanced Schierholtz to third, but Brandon Crawford grounded out with the infield in, and Chris Stewart hit a loud out to left field.

The Giants looked to have something cooking in the eighth when Cody Ross drew a pinch walk from Clippard. Giants manager Bruce Bochy didn’t try to manufacture a run, though. He had Torres swing away, which resulted in a strikeout. Conor Gillaspie and Freddy Sanchez hit lazy fly balls to end the inning.

Bochy said he never considered having Torres bunt, saying he was more comfortable taking a shot with Torres than with Gillaspie, who was making his first start of the season.

Another sellout crowd — the 26th consecutive this season — stayed to the end, perhaps anticipating another comeback and walk-off victory. But Nationals closer Drew Storen retired Huff, Schierholtz and Rowand on three ground balls to end it.

The Nats managed to win without Jayson Werth, who was limited to a pinch-hitting appearance after turning his ankle while tripping on the bullpen mound a night earlier.

For more on the Giants, see Andrew Baggarly’s Extra Baggs blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs.