The Astros needed a clean answer after dropping two of three to the Angels, and Hayden Wesneski delivered exactly that on Friday night.
Houston had just taken an 18-3 beating on Thursday and watched the Rangers trim the AL West lead to one game with a win over the Nationals. So when the Astros opened their series against the Athletics at home, the assignment was simple: get back on track and keep pace in the division.
Wesneski handled his part. The right-hander gave Houston five scoreless innings, allowed one hit, struck out four and worked around three walks. Manager Joe Espada also got the kind of support he needed behind him, as Bennett Sousa, Bryan Abreu, Steven Okert and Enyel De Los Santos combined for four more scoreless innings to secure the win.
“He was cruising the whole entire [start],” Espada said, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. “He threw a ton of strikes.
His stuff looked really good. The sweeper was really good against righties and the changeup against lefties -- he just mixed all his pitches really well.
It was a really solid performance.”
Wesneski’s outing mattered even more because Houston’s bullpen had been thinned out after the Los Angeles series. Espada needed length, and he got it from the 28-year-old, who has continued to look solid since returning from Tommy John surgery.
Since coming back this summer, Wesneski is 3-1 with a 4.23 ERA across 27.2 innings, with 22 strikeouts and a 1.23 WHIP. He used 91 pitches to get through his five frames on Friday, but that didn’t change the most important part of the equation for Espada: the zeros stayed on the board.
The Astros still need this series. There’s no way around that. They’ll turn to Hunter Brown on Saturday night with a chance to set up a sweep on Sunday, but for now, the big development was Wesneski giving Houston a timely start and another encouraging sign as the season moves deeper into the stretch run.
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