As team recovers, makeshift rotation keeps Astros afloat

HOUSTON—Dallas Keuchel isn’t pitching for the Houston Astros right now.

Neither are Lance McCullers, Charlie Morton and Collin McHugh.

With four-fifths of their rotation on the disabled list, the first-place Astros are relying on two rookies, a second-year player, one who has bounced between the bullpen and starting and Mike Fiers, who was supposed to be their fifth starter, to keep the rotation afloat until the ailing starters return.

“You don’t really prepare for those extreme circumstances, but you hope that your organization can respond,” general manager Jeff Luhnow said.

The Astros have been without McHugh all season as he dealt with a dead arm in spring training before an elbow injury landed him on the 60-day disabled list. Keuchel, McCullers and Morton all had strong starts to the season to pair with a powerful offense and help the Astros race out to a huge lead in the American League West and the best record in the majors.

But just as folks started talking about how many wins this team could pile up and predicting a deep postseason run, injuries to their starting pitchers started to mount.

Keuchel was the first to follow McHugh to the disabled list. His first trip was merely a bump in the road as the left-hander missed just one start last month with a pinched nerve in his neck before returning to the mound. Then just before what would have been his third start back, he was scratched and put back on the disabled list when the same problem returned.

The 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner, who is 9-0 and leads the majors with a 1.67 ERA, acknowledged he returned too quickly the first time and would be out longer in his second DL stint. He’s been on the disabled list 14 days this time and is still at least a week away from coming back.

Morton (strained back muscle) went out between Keuchel’s two trips to the disabled list before McCullers (back soreness) joined both of them on the shelf June 12.

While injuries happen to every club, so many at the same position so close together had the Astros scrambling to piece together a rotation.