Correa’s offensive plight has a back story
After tiptoeing around the obvious for weeks, manager A.J.
Hinch acknowledged that struggling shortstop Carlos Correa is “not feeling great.”
For the second time this month, Hinch left Correa out of the lineup a day before a team off day in order to give him two days of rest.
Correa’s swing has not looked right since he returned Aug. 10 from a vaguely described back injury that caused him to miss 45 days of the season.
For weeks, Hinch unflinchingly endorsed Correa’s ability, saying any doubters could refer to the back of Correa’s baseball card to see where the slugger’s numbers would end up.
In his last 34 games, Correa is batting .174 with four extra-base hits. The superstar who normally hovers around a .900 OPS is down to .480 since coming off the disabled list.
Now, Hinch is less shy about acknowledging that Correa does not resemble the player who made the American League All-Star team last season.
“I mean, he’s not feeling great,” Hinch said before Wednesday’s series finale against the Mariners. “It’s been a rough little stretch with him.”
Neither Hinch nor Correa broached the topic of confidence, but at the plate Correa has not adjusted to a predictable approach from pitchers.
Although Correa struggled to master low-and-away pitches before his back injury, since his return, he is seeing more pitches there and batting far worse. Even when he receives a pitch in the strike zone, if it is on the outer half or off the plate, he has not handled it.
In his last 140 plate appearances, Correa has two hits — both singles — off breaking balls.
Rondon experiences September swoon
Reliever Hector Rondon went from a pleasant surprise to a solid setup man/closer to a September concern in a path of recent decline.
The righthander has struggled mightly lately, having surrendered seven earned runs and 15 hits in six innings this month. Batters posted a 1.326 OPS in Rondon’s last six outings.
Despite Rondon’s poor performance since he took a comebacker off his wrist on Sept. 3, manager A.J. Hinch said the injury and the pitcher’s struggles are “unrelated.”
“His pitch usage could be altered a little bit,” Hinch said. “You’ve got to find out when they’re sitting fastball, when they’re sitting slider, read swings a little bit better.”
Rondon lives off his high-90s fastball, throwing it more than 60 percent of the time. He likes to throw it over the plate and tends to attack the middle third of the zone, a deadly place for a pitcher to get comfortable. ( Joe
Smith is Houston’s only reliever to throw middle fastballs more often.)
“When he executes his pitches, he’s nearly impossible to hit,” Hinch said of Rondon.
Either he has not executed them or opponents are recognizing them lately. This month, when hitters have connected with Rondon’s fastball, they have demolished it nearly half the time, going 7-for-15 off his most necessary pitch.
Rondon has done worse with his changeup in this bad spell. Hitters have connected with two of his changeups, both times for hits.
As bad as he has been lately, Rondon has been more fallible throughout the season than his numbers suggest. Out of the Astros’ relievers, Rondon has allowed the most balls struck with an exit velocity of 95 mph or more. Even his outs have gotten hit hard.
“In this league, you make one mistake, and that mistake might cost you a game,” Hinch said.
Reddick passes test, returns to lineup
After exiting Monday’s game and missing Tuesday’s because of a sore right Achilles tendon, Astros right fielder Josh Reddick was back in the lineup for the series finale against the Mariners on Wednesday.
Reddick aggravated his Achilles tendon in an at-bat and while fielding Monday, but he said he has “no idea what caused” the injury.
“I felt a little grab, so I figured I’d let (the training staff ) know,” he said. “It wasn’t anything serious. I was able to test it today.”
Neither manager A.J. Hinch nor Reddick expressed concern that the injury would linger or affect the outfielder’s play down the stretch of the season.
“He’s a veteran guy. He knows himself better than others,” Hinch said.
Reddick, who is playing his 10th major league season, added: “The biggest concern after the game was being able to push it.”
Osuna hearing to be rescheduled
A court hearing set for Wednesday in the assault case in Toronto against Astros pitcher
Roberto Osuna will be rescheduled, Osuna’s attorney said.
No date has been announced for the rescheduled hearing, but the Astros will be in Toronto next week to play the Blue Jays.
Osuna was charged earlier this year in Canada, while pitching with the Blue Jays, with the U.S. equivalent of misdemeanor assault in what has been described as a domestic violence case. Osuna’s attorney, Domenic
Basile, has said he hopes to resolve the case through a peace bond, Canada’s equivalent of a restraining order.
In this case, Osuna would agree to certain provisions set by the court for a period of one year, and the charge against him would be dismissed. Details of the case have not been made public.
The Astros traded for Osuna in late July as he was completing a 75-game suspension handed down by Major League Baseball for violation of its Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy, one of the stiffest sentences levied under that policy.