Liriano seeks relief from rough stretch
CHICAGO — In his three lackluster relief appearances with the Astros, Francisco Liriano has faced 11 batters. Six have reached base. Shoddy command with both his fastball and his slider is the root of Liriano’s struggles. The veteran lefthander and converted starter has thrown 48 pitches since joining the Astros. Only 24 have been strikes.
Liriano has issued a walk in each of his three outings. Walks plagued him during his struggles as a starter with the Toronto Blue Jays this season, too. He issued 4.9 per nine innings in his 18 starts, an increase from his career average of 3.9.
“His mechanics are a little bit inconsistent right now,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said after Wednesday’s loss to the White Sox, in which Liriano allowed two inherited runners to score. “I know they’re working on a few things to try to get him to execute pitches. He’s missing arm side a lot with his fastball. He’s not able to really land his breaking ball a ton, and he’s getting burned by it.”
The adjustment from a starting role to a relief role has taken longer for Liriano than expected, though it’s not as if he pitched well as a starter for Toronto this year. The 12-year vet had a 5.88 ERA in 822⁄3 innings before the July 31 trade to the Astros, who acquired him with the hope his stuff would play up in shorter spurts out of the bullpen and when used mostly against lefthanded hitters.
“(When) starting, I take my time to warm up and get my pitches going. Now I have to get it going like right away,” Liriano said Thursday. “I need to get used to it, so I’m just working on that, and hopefully things get better soon.”
Harris making an adjustment
As he works his way back from injury for a second time this summer, Astros reliever Will Harris has been working on a mechanical adjustment in his delivery that he hopes will alleviate the stress on his shoulder.
Harris, who hasn’t pitched for the Astros since July 5 because a bone bruise in his pitching shoulder, resumed playing catch earlier this week and feels his arm has responded well. The 32-year-old righthander pinpointed the required adjustment from studying video of himself pitching from the last four to five seasons.
“I felt like I was putting a lot of pressure and putting myself in a position where my arm was kind of dragging a little bit and putting a lot of strain on my shoulder,” he said. “If I can clean that up, I feel like it’s something I won’t have to worry about from here on out.”
The Astros’ bullpen has undoubtedly missed Harris, arguably its most reliable reliever. The Astros came into Thursday’s series finale in Chicago with a 5.13 bullpen ERA since the All-Star break. Only the Blue Jays (5.49) and t Tigers (5.33) have been worse in that span.
Odds and ends
Alex Bregman batted fifth in the order Thursday for the first time in his major league career. The No. 3 and 4 spots are the only ones in which he hasn’t batted since he debuted for the Astros in June 2016. …Now with enough at-bats to qualify
on league leader lists, Marwin Gonzalez came into Thursday ranked sixth in the AL in batting average (.310) and OPS (.958). Players qualify for league leader boards when having garnered at least 3.1 plate appearances per team game.