A mere hiccup for Astros
Astros overcome brief skid, show they’re still the top team in MLB
The team shows its mettle in responding to some adversity and a brief skid.
Aweek ago we were all-in on the Astros as baseball’s best team — on paper statistically, on the field mentally, hitting, pitching … you name it. • Considering how much room for growth this young squad still has, it was an impressive position to be in through the first quarter of the season. • Then the Cleveland Indians came to town, the injury bug hit and the Astros had their worst weekend of the season. And where did that leave them? As the best team in baseball, still, but facing their second most character-testing (and building) challenge of the season.
This is when the Astros needed Dallas Keuchel.
Merriam-Webster defines a stopper as “a baseball pitcher depended on to win important games or to stop a losing streak.”
For the Astros, that guy is Keuchel, the crafty left-hander, who might be the most underrated pitching star in the major leagues.
The bad Astros, the ones that won just 55 games the year Keuchel made his major league debut (2012), and the ones that won a measly 51 games in his first full season (2013), had little use for a stopper. (Wanna try to plug Niagara Falls?) And Keuchel wasn’t ready to be one.
As he learned to deal to major league hitters, the Astros learned that it takes major league hitters to compete in the major leagues.
The Astros are a long way from those triple-digit loss teams, and Keuchel a long way from that sparse little goatee he sometimes wore back then.
When the Astros needed Keuchel to step up after the Indians swept through town, he was unable to go. A pinched nerve in his neck put him on the disabled list for what he and the team hopes will be just one start.
But instead of the Astros hitting their first extended funk of the season, their three-game losing streak ended Monday with an impressive showing
Making a spot start in place of Dallas Keuchel, Brad Peacock helped the Astros end a three-game losing streak. Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle
against Detroit. It was a game that says a lot about the makeup of this squad. Welcome to 2017. In a game where a stopper was needed, especially considering the recent offensive slump, Brad Peacock, Chris Devenski, Will Harris and Ken Giles combined to shutout the Tigers in a 1-0 Astros win.
To everyone’s surprise, Peacock, who eked out a spot on the roster in spring training, started it off by going 4 1/3 innings and giving up just a single hit. What? “Everything you could ask for going into the game, he exceeded just by getting into the fifth (inning),” manager A.J. Hinch said.
Keuchel would have had to throw a no-hitter to do better than the team effort, as only one Tiger reached second base, and he got there via a walk and a wild pitch.
If that weren’t impressive enough, the next night Lance McCullers, a preening 23-year-old who has future stopper written all over him, and the bullpen shut down the Tigers again.
McCullers allowed just one hit in a scoreless five innings of work, to set the Astros up for a 6-2 victory.
Juan Centeno, called up from AAA because catcher Brian McCann is out with a concussion, hit a home run in his Astros debut, but more importantly, worked a strong game behind the plate.
McCullers who won his third straight start as the Astros improved to 8-2 with him on the mound this season, never had worked with Centeno. Ever. Not even during spring training.
Oh and Carlos Correa was sick and couldn’t play.
These Astros aren’t looking for excuses, they’re just delivering answers.
When we look back on the 2017 season, a sleepy couple of early weeknights in May, nights with less than 24,000 fans on hand, will almost certainly be dwarfed by other more spectacular memories.
But maybe we learned more about the Astros on these two nights than we will when the pennant race heats up late in the summer.
“It’s kind of one of those things where we had our backs against the wall a little bit and we needed to bounce back,’ McCullers said after Tuesday’s win. “We were kind of struggling on all fronts.
“We’re starting to get going again … the last couple days.”
McCullers might be wrong about that.
Maybe the Astros aren’t getting going again at all.
They lost three games in a row, but they never stopped being the best team in baseball.
No stopper was needed.