The Giants added six players to the 40-man roster on Friday night to protect them from the Rule 5 draft, and one was a real attention-grabber: Former slugging first base prospect Angel Villalona, who hasn’t played in two years because he was charged with murder in the barroom slaying of a man in the Dominican Republic.

All charges against Villalona were dropped earlier this year and Major League Baseball reinstated him from the restricted list a few weeks ago, Giants vice president Bobby Evans said. Villalona still must reestablish his U.S. work visa; Evans said that application process has just begun but the club was “not anticipating problems.”

Evans called the decision to allow Villalona to return “very complex. … The reality is, he’s a player that has been cleared under Dominican law of any involvement or wrongdoing and we are not the jury in that sort of case.

“There’s still a lot we have to learn about him on and off the field. He knows he has a long process in front of him and he has a lot to prove. That process has just now begun for him.”

The Giants also protected OF Roger Kieschnick, 2B Charlie Culberson, RHP Dan Otero, RHP Hector Correa and OF Tyler Graham by adding them to the roster. They cleared space by designating center fielder Darren Ford and right-hander Waldis Joaquin for assignment. It’s possible that Ford and Joaquin could be re-signed to minor league contracts, Evans said.

Vogelsong finishes strong; Wilson done for season

A record-breaking sellout crowd sent off Ryan Vogelsong with a rousing ovation Monday night. But they couldn’t deliver a final salute to their bearded wonder in the bullpen.

Vogelsong pitched seven shutout innings in the Giants’ 3-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies, capping an out-of-nowhere All-Star season in which his 2.71 ERA led a brilliant starting staff.

Closer Brian Wilson did not pick up the save, though. Manager Bruce Bochy confirmed that Wilson, who had missed a month with an inflamed elbow before making two appearances last week, will be shut down for the season.

“I don’t see the point of throwing Brian out there now,” Bochy said. “He wants to pitch. It’s the old risk-reward adage.”

Wilson hustled out of the clubhouse and did not stop when asked for comment, saying, “I’m not going to talk about myself.”

Vogelsong was a much more dramatic topic, anyway. Signed as a minor league free agent, the 34-year-old veteran of the Japanese leagues hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2006 before cracking the Giants rotation in late April.

He ended up tying Tim Lincecum for the staff lead with 13 victories; Vogelsong ranks fourth in the N.L. in ERA, too — just in front of Lincecum (2.74). He cemented a place in next year’s rotation, and probably will score a multiyear contract.

SAN DIEGO — Brett Pill doesn’t wear thick smears of eye black, speak in a screeching, Louisiana drawl or fill up a room with his outsize personality.

But after Tuesday night, he does own a place in Giants history alongside Will Clark. And a new nickname, too.

A quarter-century after “Will the Thrill” so memorably hit a home run in his first big league plate appearance, “Pill the Thrill” became the first Giant to replicate his feat.

Pill took a called strike before digging out a breaking pitch from San Diego Padres left-hander Wade LeBlanc, lining a no-doubt, two-run shot in the second inning that smacked the second-deck railing of the Western Metal Supply Co. building in left field.

Carlos Beltran added RBIs in three different innings as the Giants won 6-4 at Petco Park. The victory went to rookie Eric Surkamp — his first in the big leagues — and wouldn’t you know it? For just the fourth time in 34 days, they made up ground in the N.L. West, too. They are six back with 20 to play after the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks lost at Colorado.

A Giants player hadn’t homered in his first career plate appearance since Clark took Nolan Ryan deep on the first swing of his big league life in the 1986 season opener at the Astrodome. Pill joined Clark and Johnnie LeMaster (in 1975) as the only Giants to accomplish the feat in the club’s 54 seasons in San Francisco.

Pill, who turns 27 Friday, tamped down a smile as he rounded the

bases but couldn’t keep a straight face the whole way.

“When I hit it, I figured it was gone, but that’s still the fastest I’ve ever ran around the bases,” Pill said. “Coming around third, you could just tell how happy the guys were. It’s an awesome team. They’re all pulling for you.”

He’d heard “Pill the Thrill” while knocking in 107 runs for Triple-A Fresno but didn’t feel worthy of it. What does he think of it now?

“That’s a big name to live up to, so I don’t know,” he said, “but it sounds cool.”

The Giants inched closer to Arizona with a lineup that, incredibly, didn’t feature a single player who started on opening day. In fact, Mark DeRosa was the only member of Tuesday’s lineup who was on the opening-day roster. And three of the nine — Pill, Surkamp and newly promoted center fielder Justin Christian — had spring-training lockers at the Giants’ minor league complex.

But Surkamp got a key double-play grounder to complete five innings, and the Giants survived Santiago Casilla’s wildness in the ninth to protect Surkamp’s victory and ensure he’d get the requisite beer shower from teammates.

“I didn’t know that was coming,” Surkamp said. “I’m up here, I’m new. To see all these guys up here get a shot, it’s great.”

Before the game, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said the farm-fresh lineup wasn’t a sign the club is looking ahead to next season.

“We think we’re putting our best club out there to win this game today,” said Bochy, citing Aubrey Huff’s bad back and Pablo Sandoval’s weak shoulder while batting right-handed.

DeRosa continues to become part of that club, too. He punched a single ahead of Pill’s home run, which gave Surkamp the early lead.

“To be honest, it didn’t shock me,” DeRosa said. “I’ve spent so much time rehabbing in Fresno. I’ve seen it. A big kid, has simple mechanics and he finds the barrel repeatedly.”

Beltran is beginning to thrill in September, too. In four games this month, he is 11 for 15 with two doubles, two triples, one home run, six RBIs, two walks and no strikeouts. He hit a tiebreaking single in the third inning as the Giants clinched just their second series win out of their last 12.

The Giants also scored at least six runs in consecutive games for the first time since July 14-15, when they opened the second half at San Diego.

Bochy said he planned to sit Pill in place of Huff on Wednesday but reserved the right to change his mind. He’ll also need to revisit the closer situation after Casilla, the interim guy, hit two batters in a major meltdown; Ramon Ramirez had to strike out Jesus Guzman with the bases loaded to end it.

“I’m gonna go with my gut from this point on,” Bochy said.

What if that gut inspires more Grizzlies than grizzled vets?

“I tell you what, it definitely sparks some energy, no doubt,” DeRosa said. “These guys are all hungry. They’re all fighting to prove they belong here. I love it. I really think these guys can help us.”

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

The Arizona Diamondbacks scored a decisive knockout of Tim Lincecum on Saturday night, and in the process, might have put the defending World Series champion Giants down for the count in 2011.

The Diamondbacks didn’t just deliver a severe mathematical punch to the Giants with a 7-2 victory at AT&T Park. They also landed a heavy psychological blow by scoring in four consecutive innings against San Francisco’s ace and sending him to the showers with nobody out in the top of the sixth inning with back-to-back doubles ringing in his ears.

While it might still be a bit early to start calculating magic numbers for Arizona to win the N.L. West — for the record, it’s 18 — Kirk Gibson’s team can take comfort that it will leave the Bay Area on Sunday with at least a five-game division lead and possibly seven with just 22 games to play for both clubs.

“Sure, it’s a tough loss, and we know we’re running out of time,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “But we have to keep battling.”

After getting a foot in the door Friday night with a 6-2 victory behind Matt Cain, the Giants banked heavily that their main man Lincecum could keep the momentum going by outdueling the Diamondbacks’ ace right-hander, Ian Kennedy.

But despite starting well, Lincecum (12-12) simply couldn’t craft one of his big-game gems. He gave up nine hits and five earned runs, at least one over four consecutive innings. One was a fourth-inning homer by rookie Paul Goldschmidt,

who touched Lincecum for his first major league homer on Aug. 2. Ryan Roberts and Gerardo Parra finished Lincecum’s night with back-to-back doubles to open the sixth.

“I just wasn’t finishing my pitches, and everything that was breaking was breaking into the zone,” Lincecum said. “I also got away from the game plan against guys like Goldschmidt. I’ve got to elevate the ball in on him, and I just kept throwing it knee high where he could get to those kind of balls.”

Goldschmidt, who also had an RBI in the fifth, said he has no special mojo when going up against the Giants right-hander.

“He’s so good, you just have to try and capitalize on any mistakes you get, and if he falls behind, try to make it hurt,” he said. “You just try to get into a good count, and on the home run, I was able to get it to 2-0, and he threw me a fastball I could hit hard.”

Goldschmidt’s homer broke a 1-1 tie, and the Diamondbacks kept adding on from there against Lincecum, who achieved a rare milestone by reaching 200 strikeouts for the fourth straight year, just the third man in franchise history to do it.

But it was a hollow achievement in the wake of the drubbing.

“Of course it’s disappointing,” he said. “Obviously, these two games were big for us coming into the series, and throwing up something like that is not good for anybody.”

It was good for the Diamondbacks, who can smell the finish line after their ace outdueled the Giants’ ace. Kennedy (18-4), who has won 10 of his past 11 starts, limited the Giants to five hits over seven innings, and the one run he allowed in the third inning only momentarily tied the score.

“Seven innings from Kennedy was big for us, and tacking on runs against Lincecum, that was also big,” Gibson said.

The Giants had one last opportunity to get back into the game after Kennedy departed. Jeff Keppinger and Carlos Beltran stroked back-to-back singles to open the inning against reliever David Hernandez. But the Giants scored only once as Beltran was thrown out at second base on Pablo Sandoval’s fly ball.

Any Giants victory is cause for celebration these days, so while a 2-1 win over Houston on Friday night didn’t exactly signal a breakout, it did alleviate a few of the foreboding vibes around AT&T Park.

For starters, the Giants won a game without their best hitter, Pablo Sandoval, who took a day off to rest nagging aches in his shoulder and quad. They also received a rare contribution from Mark DeRosa, who started at first base in place of the struggling Aubrey Huff and made a brilliant third-inning defensive scoop that might have saved the game.

The Giants still trail the Arizona Diamondbacks by three games in the N.L. West. But in keeping pace, they showed some signs of offensive life, even though they managed just four hits. Carlos Beltran had two hits and a walk and made solid contact every time he swung the bat. Jeff Keppinger ripped a two-run double in the fifth that provided the victory margin.

Finally, the pitching was back to stingy winning form. Starter Madison Bumgarner (8-12) allowed just one run over 61/3 innings and received fabulous relief support from Ramon Ramirez and Santiago Casilla to preserve the Giants’ 30th one-run victory. Ramirez and Casilla combined to pitch 22/3 innings and didn’t allow a baserunner via hit or walk, striking out five.

“Ramirez came in a tough spot — first and third with the tying run on — and made some great pitches and saved us,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Then Casilla,

with his second save in the last few days, what a great job he did. And Madison pitched well in a game where we needed it.”

Early on, it looked as if it might be another frustrating night for the punchless Giants. They put runners on in each of the first three innings against Astros starter J.A. Happ (4-15) but couldn’t score.

The Giants broke through in the fifth with some help. Chris Stewart’s leadoff grounder up the middle was mishandled by shortstop Clint Barmes for an error. After Bumgarner sacrificed Stewart to second, Cabrera walked.

Keppinger then battled back from an 0-2 hole to get the count to 3-2 and finally rifled a ball into the left-center gap on the ninth pitch of his at-bat.

“The first two pitches were pitchers’ pitches,” he said. “I was sitting on the fastball the whole time, fouled a couple off and finally (Happ) gave me one out over the plate I could handle.”

As for DeRosa, he made an incredible pick of an errant Miguel Tejada rocket throw from third base with two on and two out in the third. It saved at least one run and possibly two. At least psychologically, it changed the whole complexion of the game.

“Out of position, wet grass, man in scoring position, that was a 10,” DeRosa said when asked about the degree of difficulty of his play. “To be honest with you, when you’re playing a position you haven’t played and aren’t comfortable at, you just go back to being an athlete, not try and think too much.”

Then DeRosa, noting that he used Sandoval’s first-base glove, added, “That’s do-or-die. That’s luck. It found my glove.”

Bochy disagreed.

“That’s pretty impressive for a guy who really hasn’t played a lot of first base,” he said. “That’s not an easy play, but what a pick.”

The Astros made a serious bid to overtake the Giants in the seventh, chasing Bumgarner from the game in the process. Former Giant Matt Downs was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and Jose Altuve followed with a single to left. On a Barmes missed bunt attempt, Stewart appeared to have Downs caught off second but bounced his throw into center field for an error.

Downs and Altuve moved up a base, and after Barmes grounded out to third base, scoring Downs, Humberto Quintero singled sharply to left, Altuve holding up at third. Bochy made the call for Ramirez, who struck out pinch hitter Brian Bogusevic and got Jordan Schafer to hit into a force play.

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.

HOUSTON — It was a scene that told the story of the Giants’ bruising trip, if not their season.

Pablo Sandoval slumped forward on a clubhouse couch, his left shoulder encased in ice. Carlos Beltran engaged him in conversation, a bandaged right hand leaning on the arm rest.

One switch hitter couldn’t bat from the left side. The other was too sore to swing right-handed. As for everyone else on the Giants’ skeleton crew? The swings were as thin as ever in a 6-0 loss to the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on Friday night.

The Giants have been shut out in consecutive games for the first time since May 22-23, 2010, at Oakland. It must be incense and holy water keeping them just 21/2 games behind Arizona in the N.L. West.

“I don’t know how else to tell you. We were awful,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who arrived at the ballpark to find Sandoval and Orlando Cabrera (strained groin) in the trainer’s room. “The day started off bad with a couple injuries and got worse. It was an awful day.

“You’ve always got to think it’s temporary. But it doesn’t help that we’re showing up every day with somebody not able to go. That’s got to stop.”

The Astros entered with a 40-84 record, the worst in the major leagues, and most of those defeats happened before they scattered Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn and other useful parts to contending teams.

But that didn’t seem to matter against the Giants, who are not stepping on

anyone these days. They began this 10-game trip with a loss at Florida, which broke the Marlins’ seven-game losing streak. When the Giants last played at AT&T Park, they dropped two of three to a reeling Pittsburgh club that entered on a 10-game free fall.

So perhaps it’s not such an important factor that the Giants will play 30 of their final 36 games — all but their two remaining series with Arizona — against clubs with losing records.

The Giants are their own toughest opponent.

“I think you know what the state of our offense is right now,” said Mark DeRosa, who had a double and a walk but also made a damaging error at third base.

Three of Ryan Vogelsong’s five runs were unearned in seven innings, and like Tim Lincecum a day earlier, he tried to take blame for failing to pick up the team.

DeRosa had a pointed response to that.

“Our pitching staff is entirely too good, and they’re being entirely too nice to us, to be honest,” he said. “We’ve hung Timmy out to dry. We’ve hung (Madison Bumgarner) out to dry. Same with (Matt Cain). Vogey, too.

“Nobody’s freaked out in the dugout or said something in the paper. We’re all competitors here, a tight group. At the same time, these guys on the bump are busting their asses every night, and they’re not getting anything for it. Every pitch is stressful.”

The Giants held a hitters-only meeting before the game, and although Hensley Meulens remains the hitting coach, the organization is interjecting some new voices into the discussion.

Former Giants hitting coach Joe Lefebvre, now a special assistant to general manager Brian Sabean, was in uniform for the first time in five years and took part in the meeting.

It would help if some of those hitters made it out of the trainer’s room. Beltran, their prized pickup at the trade deadline, said his right-handed swing is nearly game ready, but he still feels a “catching” sensation from the left side.

Beltran planned to take right-handed batting practice Saturday and is eligible to be activated Tuesday. Bochy wouldn’t rule out putting him on the roster even if he’s limited to pinch-running and late-inning defense.

“We’re too limited right now,” Bochy said.

But Beltran said he wouldn’t consider batting right-handed against right-handed pitchers, nor is that something Bochy would push him to try.

“That’s not me. I’m a switch hitter,” Beltran said. “We all wish this would heal faster. … There’s no one who wants to be out there more than myself. But there’s nothing I can do.”

Sandoval, who strained his left shoulder on a right-handed swing Thursday at Atlanta, took batting practice from the left side and tried to persuade Bochy to let him bat that way against Astros ace left-hander Wandy Rodriguez.

Bochy rejected the offer but said he expected Sandoval to play the remainder of the weekend as the Astros send two right-handers to the mound.

“We think he’ll be fine,” Bochy said.

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