Undeniable reasons Houston Astros season hangs in balance over this critical stretch
STONE COLD 'STROS
13 May 2024
The stakes are high! Composite Getty Image.
The Houston Astros secured a much-needed series win over the Tigers behind a classic Justin Verlander performance on Sunday. It was nice to see Verlander bounce back after his worst performance of the season against the Yankees in his previous start.
JV received some unjust criticism after getting shelled by the Yankees, with many fans claiming he's over the hill and has been terrible this season. Which is completely false, as the only game Verlander surrendered more than two runs was in that one start in New York. Outside that one bump in the road, he's given his team a chance to win in every one of his starts.
Speaking of pitching, this week we arrive at the quarter point of the season and the Astros' team ERA (4.96) is the third-worst in baseball, behind only the Rockies and Marlins. As opposed to Houston's offense, that is becoming a strength for the club, posting the best team batting average in MLB.
So pitching continues to be the main issue, along with their inability to hit with runners in scoring position.
However, clutch hitting appears to be moving in the right direction, with the team scoring runs late to give the bullpen a larger margin for error against the Detroit over the weekend.
The time is now
The Astros next fourteen out of seventeen games are against a divisional opponent, so if there was ever a time to make up some ground in the division, this is it. The Astros face the A's, Brewers, Angels, and Mariners in the coming days, and the club is 6.5 games behind division leading Seattle.
The season could ultimately come down to this stretch of games, and now would be the perfect time for Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman's bats to heat up. Yordan is really struggling with runners in scoring position and Bregman is struggling to hit, period.
Bregman is in Jose Abreu territory, currently sporting the 5th lowest OPS in MLB (.534), and the 4th lowest slugging percentage (.264). Moving him down in the batting order certainly looks like the right move, as he has one double in his last 24 games, and just two extra base hits in that span.
Who leaves the rotation when Jose Urquidy returns?
Don't miss the video above as we examine arguably the most important stretch of the Astros season to date, how Houston will set up their pitching rotation moving forward, and much more!
Catch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) with Charlie Pallilo, Brandon Strange, and Josh Jordan every Monday on SportsMapHouston's YouTube channel! We'll continue to drop more episodes throughout the week.
José Ramírez homered for a third straight game, Angel Martínez also went deep and the Cleveland Guardians got a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep.
It’s the first time the Guardians, who entered the series on a 10-game skid, have won three in a row since a four-game winning streak from May 21-24.
Slade Cecconi (4-4) allowed five hits and two runs with a career-best nine strikeouts in 7-plus innings for the win. Paul Sewald pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.
Martínez homered for a second straight at-bat with his shot to the Crawford Boxes with one out in the first inning. His grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning Tuesday night lifted Cleveland to a 10-6 win.
Four pitches after Martinez’s homer Wednesday, Ramírez also connected off Brandon Walter (1-2) to make it 2-0. Walter settled in after that, retiring the next 17 batters, with seven strikeouts before Bennett Sousa took over to start the seventh.
Ramírez and Carlos Santana hit consecutive singles with no outs in the inning before David Fry walked to load the bases. Johnathan Rodríguez then singled to score two and extend the lead to 4-0.
The Astros had managed just four singles when Taylor Trammell walked with no outs in the eighth and scored on a double by Mauricio Dubón that cut the lead to 4-1. There were two outs in the inning when Jose Altuve’s RBI double made it 4-2.
The AL West-leading Astros went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position to cap this disappointing series which came after they swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Key moment
Martínez and Ramírez had back-to-back homers in the first.
Key stat
Ramírez, who dropped out of next week’s All-Star game Wednesday to rehab a nagging Achilles injury, has four homers and seven RBIs this month.
Up next
LHP Logan Allen (5-7, 4.07 ERA) will start for Cleveland in the opener of a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox Thursday night. The Astros are off Thursday and haven’t announced their rotation for their weekend series against the Rangers.
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