Astros’ winning streak ends
Fister pads list of ineffective starts, early exits on a day when opportunity ripe in wild card
CLEVELAND — Even with an 11-man September bullpen, it’s impossible to mask a shoddy rotation for any extended period of time.
If the Astros are to win enough of the next 23 games to claim the second American League wild card, they will need their starters to pitch deeper into games at a drastically better rate.
Doug Fister’s latest struggle-filled outing in Wednesday night’s 6-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field marked the seventh consecutive game an Astros starter failed to complete six innings. Incredibly, only Mike Fiers has finished five innings in that span.
A potent lineup and effective bullpen have helped the Astros win four of those seven games. But such a method of winning is neither sustainable nor a blueprint for a playoff team. Look no further than Wednesday, when with Will Harris, Chris Devenski and Michael Feliz unavailable because of recent usage, Kevin Chapman was thrust into a game-altering spot in the fifth inning.
Fister’s sudden drop off is especially troubling for a rotation that is without its two best pitch-
ers in Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers and on Thursday will start a prospect, David Paulino, who has only three Class AAA starts under his belt.
The Astros’ most consistent starter for most of the season, Fister has pitched 41⁄3 innings or fewer in four of his last five starts. His ERA over his last seven starts is a woeful 7.12. The veteran sinkerballer was at a loss for an explanation after Wednesday’s loss, in which he was charged with six runs on nine hits, issued three walks and hit two batters.
“Gave up too many runs,” he said. “We lost. That’s kind of the end of it right there.”
Before his next start Monday against Texas, Fister (12-11) will “get back to basics,” he said, working in the bullpen with the coaches and studying his recent performances on video.
“I don’t really know what it is to be honest,” he said on whether his issues are mechanical in nature.
Fister’s night featured 89 pitches but only 13 outs. An ERA that for months hovered in the 3.00s inflated to 4.14. He has more walks (five) than strikeouts (three) over his last three starts.
In the eyes of manager A.J. Hinch, the most prominent difference in Fister is “the finish on his pitches and execution, which is something that he really does well when he’s good.”
“He’s having a hard time ending at-bats,” Hinch said. “There are a couple of misfires that aren’t normal for him. He rarely yanks a cutter and hits guys, especially lefthanded hitters. He did that a couple of times today. Execution is key in his game when he’s good. It certainly stands out when he struggles.”
The Indians tagged Fister for runs in three of the five innings. A 427-foot bomb from Mike Napoli turned the Astros’ one-run lead into a one-run deficit in the fifth. Consecutive singles followed to end Fisster’s night.
Both baserunners scored when Brandon Guyer, a righthanded batter pinch-hitting for the lefthanded Tyler Naquin, ripped a two-run double off Chapman, summoned Monday from Class AAA after posting a 4.87 ERA in 61 Pacific Coast League innings of relief this season.
“The at-bat against Naquin, I needed him out of the game. He’s one of their best hitters and we’re going to go with the matchup of their guy off the bench versus our bullpen guy,” Hinch said. “I needed (Tony) Sipp for a later inning for multiple hitters. I didn’t want Sipp to face (Roberto) Perez. I didn’t want him to face (Carlos) Santana.”
The offense hit well enough for the Astros to win. Yulieski Gurriel made the game interesting in the eighth with his first homer in the majors, a two-run shot that brought the Astros within a run on a day on which the team’s two chief competitors for the second wild card also lost.
“I feel happy I got the first one out of the way,” Gurriel said through a translator. “It’s been a little while. I was glad that I was able to drive in two runs but a little unhappy that we fell short.”
George Springer, Jose Altuve and Gurriel each tallied two hits. Colby Rasmus belted his 14th home run, a two-run blast off Carlos Carrasco in the fourth inning that gave the Astros a one-run lead.
It didn’t last, an occurrence that will become more common if the Astros don’t extract better performances and more length from their beleaguered rotation.