Astros aim to turn things around after slow start
HOUSTON » T hrough 20 games, t he Houston A stros have managed just six wins and are in l ast place in t he AL West.
Their pitching s taff trails only C olorado with a 5 .24 ERA and big- money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have r eached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First- year m anager J oe Espada, who was hired in January to r eplace t he r etired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he s aid. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many o f Houston’s problems h ave stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by i njuries. A ce J ustin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez m ade just t wo s tarts before l anding on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no- hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2- 0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2- 0 with a 1 .54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a l ittle bit of a roller c oaster h ow w e’ve played o verall,” he s aid. “One day we get good starting pitching, some d ays we don’t. T he middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros i s that Verlander will make h is s eason debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five- year, $ 95 million contract this offseason t o give t he A stros a shutdown 7- 8- 9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with B ryan A breu a nd Ryan P ressly. But the fivetime All- Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6- 1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs t his season a fter g iving up t he same number i n 56 1/ 3 innings for San Diego last year.
He w as m uch better Wednesday when h e struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez a nd Kyle Tucker, r anks t hird i n the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many o f Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37- year- old, who is in the second year of a three- year, $ 58.5 million contract, is h itting 0.78 with just one extra- base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada b rushed o ff c riticism of A breu a nd s aid he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.