Rotation is saving grace
As offense slumps, pitching is keeping playoffff berth alive.
The pencil-written plan A.J. Hinch often mentions doesn’t exist. It’s actually a spreadsheet on his trusty laptop. The delete and backspace buttons serve as erasers, and you can rest assured the firstyear Astros manager has used them this week.
Hinch is fond of saying he has written lineups and pitching rotations in pencil, meaning the ideas are subject to change. Scott Feldman’s shoulder irritation and Scott Kazmir’s short start Wednesday showed why Hinch needs an electronic eraser.
Last week, Hinch diligently began to examine his starting rotation to better set up matchups for the fifinal 28 games of the season.
Those plans had to be tweaked, however, when Feldman exited Tuesday night in the third inning with right shoulder irritation.
Then Kazmir, a key veteran the Astros hoped to pitch as much as possible on regular rest or close to it, lasted only 4 1/31/3 innings Wednesday.
The Astros have lost their last two series, dropping two of three to both the Twins on the road last weekend and the Mari- ners at home to open this week.
Hinch’s club gets three more games against Minnesota this weekend at Minute Maid Park before a stretch of 22 straight against AL West foes.
“We’re about to enter that stretch where we all know each other and we’ve all been to each other’s ballparks a couple of times this year,” Hinch said.
Feldman, who had a cortisone injection Wednesday on his right shoulder to relieve the irritation and inflammation, hopes he won’t miss more than one turn in the rotation.
Thursday’s day offff and another this Thursday will give Hinch an opportunity to give some of his fifive healthy starters extra rest and slot others in matchups he deems favorable.
Solid group
Dallas Keuchel (16-6, 2.24 ERA) will start Sunday and then likely go on regular rest during crucial series against the Angels and Rangers. He is the front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award but has had solid company in the Astros’ rotation.
Right-hander Collin McHugh (14-7, 3.92 ERA) has quietly had stretches as one of the AL’s better pitchers this season.
Right-hander Mike Fiers is an impressive 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and a no-hitter since joining the Astros just more than a month ago.
And if not for shortstop Carlos Correa, hard-throwing righthander Lance McCullers would be considered the Astros’ rookie of the year.
Keuchel picked up his third AL Pitcher of the Month award this season after going 4-1 with a 1.94 ERA in August, but he readily acknowledges he wasn’t the only Astros pitcher worthy of the award.
McHugh was 2-2 with a 1.89 ERA last month, while Feldman finished 1-1 with an AL- best 1.33 ERA in August.
“I think the whole staffff has done a great job,” Keuchel said. “I was looking at some of the August stats from the other guys — Feldman and McHugh and Fiers. They were just as good if not better than me.”
With a month to go in the season, the Astros’ streaky offense must pick it up to help carry the burden down the stretch. Outfielder George Springer’s return from the disabled list should help.
Despite right-handed setup man Pat Neshek’s losses in the last two games, the bullpen should remain a strength with him, Will Harris, Chad Qualls and Oliver Perez bridging the gap to closer Luke Gregerson.
Hard-throwing righthander Vince Velasquez has drawn plenty of praise lately as a reliev- er, and he raised his stock with an unexpected long relief role Tuesday. Righthander Michael Feliz and his 99 mph fastball will likely be called up from Class AA Corpus Christi soon.
All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve led the AL with 45 hits in August, and Correa has made a strong case to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award.
Bats need to heat up
But the feast-or-famine offffffffffffense isn’t the reason the surprising Astros lead the AL West by two games.
If not for last month’s starting pitching, the Astros would already be behind the Rangers.
“There’s a lot of good pitchers around the league, but our rotation in August was really, really good,” Hinch said. “Dallas headlined it and will get the award, but I’m proud of all of those guys. We had a winning month (15-13) in August, which was the fourth out of fifive. We were .500 one month ( July).
“We didn’t swing the bats that well in August, and the only reason we had a winning month was our starting pitching.”
Pitching is the key to playoffff baseball, but the offffffffffffense must improve.
Meanwhile, the Astros must try to ride into the postseason with an impressive rotation that entered the season with plenty of doubts.