Odorizzi shelled in first start with Astros, an 8-2 loss to Tigers.
Odorizzi’s dud of a debut fails to prevent fourth consecutive loss
At this moment, the Astros do nothing well but watch baseballs leave the ballpark. Their starters pitch four innings before flaming out. Their bullpen is worn out because of it. The bats that are supposed to buoy this ballclub instead strand baserunners in bunches.
Four grisly games does not determine the fate of a season. The Astros are not this bad, but their torrid 6-1 start seems so long ago. Winning masked some flaws during that season-opening road trip. A four-game losing streak enhances them for an entire sport to see.
Tuesday’s 8-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Minute Maid Park contained concerning constants and little life. Four Astros pitchers yielded
five home runs to an offense that arrived on Monday the third-worst in the sport. Opponents now have 12 home runs against Houston pitching in the past four games.
The Astros’ offense finished 1for-5 with runners in scoring position, plummeting their four-game mark to 3-for-32. Such anemia
sparks little faith of a comeback, but the superstars in this lineup are obvious. One or two swings can free the Astros from the frustration enveloping them. The Tigers have a combustible bullpen conducive to such a collapse.
Yet, down by six runs in the seventh and facing a bullpen that awoke Tuesday morning with a league-worst 7.26 earned run average, Dusty Baker waved a white flag. It evoked memories of a spring training game, much like the Astros’ entire Tuesday evening effort.
The manager removed Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley and Myles Straw from the game in favor of seldom-used bench players. Bregman and Brantley are two of his best hitters. At that point, Straw had the club’s only RBI.
In the ninth, with two men aboard and two outs while trailing 8-2, Baker pinch hit Martin Maldonado for Jose Altuve. Maldonado struck out looking — his 16th punchout in 34 plate appearances.
“What went into my decision was the score,” Baker said. “Brantley wasn’t feeling that well and Bregman, I had to protect his legs. That’s something that might be going on all year. The same thing happened with Altuve. He’s played every game and I had to think about tomorrow and the rest of the season. We certainly didn’t want to lose Altuve because he’s worked so hard. His legs were feeling tired and not feeling good, so therefore I had to get him out of there.”
The Astros did not make Brantley, Altuve or Bregman available for interviews after the game. Before the game, Bregman said he was “trending in the right direction” with his problematic hamstrings. The Astros have a day off Thursday and another Monday.
“From time to time, things happen,” Baker said, referring to his characterization that Brantley “wasn’t feeling that well.”
“You just don’t feel well, you don’t sleep well and I said ‘No, I better get him out of there.’ There’s tomorrow. We got a long way to go. It was kind of chilly out there as well, so I didn’t want to take a chance.”
Straw’s single in the second inning supplied the Astros their first lead in four days. Jake Odorizzi refused to hold it. His arrival gave Houston hope its rotation worries would abate. His exit left only more questions.
Odorizzi offered the Astros none of what they need. He did not finish the fourth inning, prolonging a putrid trend his fellow starters began. Through 11 games, Astros starters have thrown only 53⅓ innings. Zack Greinke accounts for 17⅔ of them. Greinke is the only man to finish seven innings.
Greinke and Jose Urquidy are the only two members of the rotation to finish six innings during a start. Three other outings ended before a starter finished the fourth. The meager workload overburdened a bullpen already without two pitchers most presumed would throw leverage innings.
“We’re trying to stick with (the starters) as long as we can,” Baker said. “The pitchers feel as badly about it, pitching coaches feel terrible about it and the players feel terrible about it. We knew there were going to be some rough stretches here early, especially without Framber (Valdez) and (Cristian) Javier, had to send him out.”
“We’re operating with about a third of our bullpen not even here. It’s not the uniform, it’s the people in the uniform. We have to find a way to survive until we get some guys back.”
Odorizzi invites at least some hope for durability. He has five major league seasons with at least 159 innings. The Astros will require another if they hope to achieve anything close to their preseason goals. His mid-spring signing left Odorizzi behind all of the Astros’ other pitchers. The righthander threw twice at the team’s alternate training site before being deemed ready for his regular-season debut. He harbored hopes of throwing 90, perhaps 100 pitches.
Odorizzi barely reached 80. He yielded five runs before exiting with one out in the fourth, a frame in which he allowed two home runs and a doble.
“First and foremost, this one’s on me,” Odorizzi said. “Any time you give up multiple runs in midgame inning, it’s usually a tough one to come back from.
Fifty-two of Odorizzi’s offerings were strikes. He fired two efficient innings to start before coming unglued during the fourth. Detroit’s entire lineup drubbed him during their second look at his arsenal, but Akil Baddoo only needed one glimpse.
The Tigers picked Baddoo in February’s Rule 5 draft after the Minnesota Twins opted not to protect him on their 40-man roster. Before arriving at spring training, Baddoo had never taken an at-bat above Class A Advanced. His ascent is almost unfathomable, a story that’s gripped the sport and brought smiles to an otherwise scuffling Tigers team.
Baddoo has six extra-base hits in his first eight games. He struck a mammoth, 450-foot home run to dead center field against Zack Greinke on Monday.
A day later, while the Astros led by one, Odorizzi left a full-count splitter over home plate. Baddoo barrelled it the other way. The baseball traveled just 348 feet. In any other ballpark, it likely lands in a left fielder’s glove. Here, in Odorizzi’s new home, it landed in the second row of the Crawford Boxes.
The short porch offered Houston’s new starter a rude welcome. Odorizzi yielded two opposite-field home runs to left field, squandering the early lead Straw created. Renato Nunez pulled a two-run shot into the Crawford Boxes for good measure, making the game farcical in the fourth.
A batter after Nunez’s home run, Baddoo bashed a single that brought Baker from the dugout. Odorizzi surrendered the baseball. He bit his glove and stared blankly ahead. His feet shuffled off the grass and down the stairs into Houston’s deflated dugout.
“It’s baseball,” Straw said. “It’s going to happen throughout 162 games. Hopefully it ends sooner than later. Just get back out here tomorrow and keep grinding and competing.”