CONTACT SLUGGERS

Flying in face of baseball logic, historically strikeout-prone club leads major leagues in most homers and fewest whiffs

SEATTLE — One of A.J. Hinch’s most common refrains last season is seldom heard. A reminder from the third-year Astros manager that “contact is your friend” is no longer needed, after all, when the team in question makes the most contact in baseball.

The Astros entered the weekend leading two major statistical categories typically incompatible: home runs and strikeout rate. The latter in particular marks a drastic departure from the first five seasons of Jeff Luhnow’s tenure as general manager, when the Astros ranked worst, secondto-worst or fourth-worst in the majors in strikeout rate.

Coming into Friday night’s series opener at Seattle, the Astros had struck out in 17.7 percent of plate appearances, almost 4 percent better than the major league average (21.5). The teams with the next-most homers behind the Astros’ 118, the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays (115), had struck out at rates of 22.5 and 25.7 percent, respectively.

A combination of offseason upgrades in personnel and improved at-bats from returning players has sparked the Astros’ drastic reduction in strikeouts.

Consider the players the Astros let walk in free agency (or released midseason) and those who replaced them.

Gone are outfielders Colby Rasmus (29.0 percent in 2016) and Carlos Gomez (30.0), catcher Jason Castro (32.7) and third baseman/first baseman Luis Valbuena (23.7). Coming in are outfielders Josh Reddick (13.3 percent this season) and Nori Aoki (12.9), catcher Brian McCann (14.3) and DH Carlos Beltran (22.1), who’s striking out a career-worst rate this year.

Then account for the first full big league seasons of Alex Bregman, who has cut his strikeout rate from 24.0 in his few months as a rookie to 17.3 this year, and Yuli Gurriel, who has a teambest 12.3 percent this year. Vast improvements made by Evan Gattis (25.5 in 2016 to 13.9 in 2017) and Marwin Gonzalez (22.8 to 18.8) account for much of the rest of the difference.

While Luhnow sought to improve the Astros’ offense in the offseason, it wasn’t as if he focused on acquiring players only based on their low strikeout rates. That was more a byproduct of targeting productive hitters.

“The goal wasn’t to create any combination of metrics,” he said. “It was to increase our output

offensively, especially in the bottom part of the lineup, where we did strike out a lot and killed a lot rallies. And I think we’re seeing the results of that. The bottom part of our lineup has been among the best in baseball this year.”

Added Hinch: “It’s not about being anti-strikeouts as much it’s about being a more potent offense.”

The Astros focused on adding players who exhibit good control of the strike zone and can put the ball in play without sacrificing power.

Through 75 games, the results are gaudy. Seven of the Astros’ 12 position players have hit 10 home runs or more. Entering Friday, they had a major league-best .594 on-base plus slugging percentage in two-strike counts whereas the major league average was .529. After 0-2 counts, they were batting .200/.225/.299 against a league average of .166/.195/.255.

“There are hits out there when you put the ball in play,” Hinch said. “You make the defense make plays. We’ve seen that come to our advantage. But it all starts with zone control and pitch recognition. It’s not going up there avoiding a strikeout. It’s going up there and getting a good pitch and staying within the strike zone to do that.”