After first save, Hader aims to improve
ARLINGTON — The first save of Josh Hader’s tenure with the Astros included a touch of drama. Houston’s new closer inherited a three-run lead in Sunday’s ninth inning against the Rangers. A one-out walk, wild pitch and run-scoring single brought the potential tying run to the plate for Texas. Hader halted the rally by getting a doubleplay groundball that finalized the Astros’ 3-1 win.
It proved an effective outing yet also continued a somewhat rocky start to the season for Hader, the left-hander signed by Houston to a five-year, $95 million deal in the offseason. After starting with two sharp outings in nonsave situations, Hader has been scored upon in each of his past three appearances. Seven hitters have reached base in those three innings against Hader, who owns a career WHIP below 1.00.
In Sunday’s outing, Hader said, he felt he was “just not getting the fastball executed on the inner half like I want to.” He said he had not dug too deeply into a cause but that he is “probably just not staying closed long enough (in his delivery) and letting my body naturally do what it does.”
Hader threw 11 of 20 pitches for strikes Sunday. He threw four fastballs out of the strike zone in a seven-pitch walk to Adolis García. Justin Foscue grounded a single up the middle on a full-count fastball Hader placed down and in for the Texas rookie’s first majorleague hit to score García. Hader threw a 1-1 slider to Ezequiel Duran to induce a sharp double-play grounder to third baseman Alex Bregman, who made a tough play on a short hop.
Hader noted his velocity was up Sunday; he averaged 97 mph and touched 98 mph with his fastball. He generated one whiff on six swings against his pitches, though, and has an unusually low 19.6% chase rate in an admittedly tiny sample size of five outings. His career chase rate is 30.6%. Though he used his slider to generate all three outs Sunday, Hader said that pitch is also not as sharp as he would like, saying it has “been kind of dogs---.”
“I think it’s just kind of piecing it together,” Hader said. “Fastball velocity is there, it’s just the command’s a little off. It’s not missing much, it’s just missing enough, and I’m not getting swings.
“The slider, I think, will then come. I think it’s kind of off right now just because of, like I mentioned, not staying closed long enough. When you’re not staying closed, the slider’s going to pop out, you’re not going to be able to stay on line and get extension — which is not going to give you that late life and that’s when you get those ones that kind of spin and stay up and do what it’s not supposed to do.
“I think once we get to that point where you ride that mound a little bit longer and stay closed as long as possible, everything starts to kind of flow and get to where you need to be.”
Hader said he expects he can make the necessary adjustment by “just getting off the mound as much as possible and making sure I’m riding it as long as possible.” Houston’s back-end bullpen trio of setup men Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly and Hader have each encountered early struggles. On Sunday, Pressly and Hader worked the final two innings of a win in a result more akin to what the Astros envision.
“Every save that we can get, every win that we can get, it means a lot,” Hader said. “Being able to get out there and help the team win, it’s what I like to do.”