HOUSTON — The Giants were one strike away from winning a ballgame at Minute Maid Park Tuesday night. And closer Camilo Doval refused to throw a pitch.

“We were all yelling from the top of the dugout,” Giants left fielder Blake Sabol said. “It was ‘Throw the ball! Anything you throw is good!’”

It’s never easy to decide what to throw to Yordan Alvarez, one of the best hitters on the planet. But the Giants led 2-0. The bases were empty. The count was full. A pitch clock violation would’ve resulted in an automatic ball four and allowed the Houston Astros to bring the tying run to the plate. In that crucial circumstance, a violation simply couldn’t happen.

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So catcher Joey Bart used his second mound visit of the inning. And when the clock began to tick down again, Bart came out of his crouch one more time. The crowd booed as Bart made a third mound visit, with shortstop Thairo Estrada joining the conversation to help with the language barrier.

One 101.2 mph cutter and one swing later, the Giants snapped their four-game losing streak. They made a winner of Anthony DeSclafani, who picked up a tired and gastro-intestinally challenged team by firing eight shutout innings. And when they needed a young catcher to take charge of a big moment, Bart did what was necessary.

“I guess that was it — our last visit,” Bart said. “And we got a pitch over the plate and won the game there. I told him four-seam, just throw fastball away, game’s over. I think he was waiting for me to send it back over PitchCom, which I did but I don’t think he heard it. Then I started to give signs between my legs and things got sped up.

“At that point, I was on it and the dugout was on it. We were able to use that last visit and get it squared away.”

Exactly one month ago, the Giants’ catching situation was the furthest thing from squared away. They had Sabol, the Rule 5 pick, on the opening day roster along with Bart and veteran Roberto Pérez. And during that season-opening series in New York, they signed former Yankees All-Star catcher Gary Sánchez to a minor league contract with a $4 million salary in the big leagues. Then prior to the final game of that series in the Bronx on April 2, Bart was a late scratch from his first start behind the plate and instead was placed on the 10-day injured list because of lower back tightness.

It was fair to wonder when Bart would be on the active roster again.

But Bart is still here while others are not.

First, the Giants lost Pérez to season-ending shoulder surgery. Now Sánchez is out of the picture. He informed the Giants that he would opt out of his contract if they didn’t add him to the major-league roster by Tuesday. The Giants declined to do so. Although Sánchez was seemingly promised an eventual place on the team once he got up to speed at Triple A, he went just 9-for-55 (.164) with no home runs in 16 games for Sacramento.

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The Giants also did not hesitate to burn through another catching depth piece in April when they added Austin Wynns to provide coverage for a few games and then lost him on a waiver claim to the Dodgers.

There’s always switch-hitting catcher Patrick Bailey, the Giants’ first-round pick in 2020, looming a level away after the team promoted him to Sacramento from Double-A Richmond last week. But the Giants would like Bailey’s promotion to be a development decision and not based on major-league roster needs.

Other than that, the Giants appear ready to roll with Bart and Sabol behind the plate and live with the growing pains.

“I heard about (Sánchez),” Bart said. “I got to talk to Gary when I was on rehab assignment. Super cool dude. Obviously a pretty cool past, you know, catching with the Yankees. I wish him the best moving forward. I’m sure someone will pick him up. He’s got a lot of talent.

“But I try not to focus on that kind of stuff. Just do my job and become a better player. That’s really my focus.”

Bart couldn’t talk Doval out of throwing his cutter to Alvarez, but coaches have noted that the catcher has been more vocal with everyone on staff including the veterans. Bart took a lengthy visit to the mound in the fourth inning when DeSclafani, who was calling his own game over the PitchCom keypad on his belt, wanted to throw a fastball away.

Giants relief pitcher Camilo Doval delivers during the ninth inning against the Astros. (Kevin M. Cox / Associated Press)

“I was on board with it, no discussion needed,” DeSclafani said. “He has just as much say in the discussion. I just have the override.”

“He was trying to throw a pitch I didn’t love to maybe the best hitter in baseball,” Bart said. “I don’t like to do that. I like guys to be convicted in what they do because he’s earned that. I’m there to support him. He’s earned the right to throw whatever he wants.”

But it’s still the catcher’s place to act as consigliere, whether their advice is accepted or not.

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Or understood.

Bart acknowledged his communication with Doval is “Not great. I do my best. I think he understands me. The way to approach it is to match his calmness. I don’t want to do anything to speed him up or tense him up. The way he is is the way he is. And he’s a hell of a pitcher, man. He’s got a real gift. So in that situation, I don’t think it’s worth it for me to go out there and try to pump him up. It’s really like ‘Hey, here we go. Four-seam away. Ballgame over. Let’s go home.’”

Bart was able to use mound visits on three separate occasions in the ninth because DeSclafani mostly hoarded them while cruising through his eight innings. When a comebacker off his cleat resulted in a single and a throwing error with two outs in the eighth, manager Gabe Kapler went to check on him. He let DeSclafani face one more hitter and Jake Meyers grounded out on the right-hander’s 109th pitch. DeSclafani held the Astros to three hits and established the inner half of the plate while uncharacteristically getting 15 of his outs in the air.

“Honestly I didn’t feel that great to start the game,” DeSclafani said. “I felt I had some luck. At the start, I didn’t think I’d have eight scoreless.”

This next part was very much in character, though: DeSclafani did not walk a batter. He’s issued just three walks in 38 innings over six starts and has a 2.13 ERA. The Giants rank in the top five among major league pitching staffs with 2.69 walks per nine innings. DeSclafani (0.71), Alex Cobb (1.1) and Logan Webb (1.2) entered Tuesday ranked third, sixth and seventh, respectively.

Kapler cites the walk rate — a reliably stable statistic — as a reason to be bullish about his pitching staff.

“We’re really going to learn how powerful that is when there’s a few less home runs hit (by opponents),” Kapler said. “You limit walks, you miss bats, you win baseball games. Unfortunately, we’ve had stretches where the ball goes out of the ballpark.”

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He might harbor the same optimism for his batters after watching them draw nine walks Tuesday night. They cashed in just one of the free passes, though. Joc Pederson and Michael Conforto drew consecutive walks in the fourth and Sabol smacked a double off the facing of the Crawford Boxes in left field to score a run in the fourth inning. The Giants scored their other run in the first inning when Estrada reached on an infield single, stole second base and motored home on Pederson’s bloop hit.

Estrada reached base four times and continues to look like the Giants’ best offensive player — and the only one who doesn’t have to fall back on station-to-station base running. He raised his average to .342 and his on-base percentage to .397. The Giants aren’t kicking themselves for giving up on Mauricio Dubón last season. But the battered New York Yankees probably regret not keeping Estrada before the Giants acquired him for cash at the start of the 2021 season.

The Astros were able to put a lid on Estrada in the fourth inning, though. Catcher Yainer Diaz threw a strike to second base to catch him attempting to steal. Diaz made another perfect throw to catch pinch runner Austin Slater in the eighth. It’s an eye-opener to see those lightning-quick transfers and perfect throws when you’ve been watching the Giants all season. They’ve caught four of 27 base stealers, or 15 percent. The league average is 20 percent.

Their situation behind the plate is far from perfect. Some nights and some innings, it can be downright ugly. But at least it’s coming into focus now.

When you feel like you own your position, maybe it’s a bit easier to feel like you own the moment when it most matters.

(Top photo of Giants catcher Joey Bart visiting pitcher Anthony DeSclafani: Kevin M. Cox / Associated Press)

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