HOUSTON -- The Astros don’t have the kind of rotation that used to make October feel like a formality in Houston. This isn’t the 2019 group with Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke powering a pennant run. But after months of injuries, patchwork starts and far too many emergency calls, the rotation is finally giving the club a real lift.
That matters because the season has been held together by improvisation. Houston’s pitching plans unraveled early in April, when Hunter Brown, Tatsuya Imai and Cristian Javier all landed on the injured list during the team’s first road trip.
From there, the Astros also had to live with uneven production from Mike Burrows and Imai, two of the offseason additions meant to stabilize the staff. Joe Espada wound up reaching into Triple-A Sugar Land for help, turning to Cody Bolton, Jason Alexander and Colton Gordon just to keep games covered.
The result has been a staggering amount of turnover. The Astros have used 18 different starting pitchers, the most in the majors and the most in franchise history. Entering play Saturday, their rotation ERA sat at 4.97, good for 28th in MLB.
Even with that backdrop, the group has started to settle in. Houston went into Saturday 7-3 over its last 10 games and held a three-game lead over the second-place Rangers in the AL West with 19 games left.
During that stretch, Astros starters posted a 2.05 ERA, though only three of those outings qualified as quality starts. Two of them came in back-to-back games against the White Sox, when Hayden Wesneski fired seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball Wednesday and Brown followed with two runs allowed over six innings Thursday.
Wesneski has been a huge part of the turnaround since coming back from Tommy John surgery July 29. He’s 4-1 with a 3.18 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in seven starts, totaling 39 2/3 innings.
Brown, meanwhile, has looked much more like the staff anchor Houston needs, going 4-2 with a 2.68 ERA over his last eight starts. Peter Lambert, a Minor League Spring Training invitee, leads the team in wins, starts and innings.
Still, the picture behind those three remains shaky. Javier showed up Friday and gave Houston a much-needed boost, allowing one run in five innings, and that came during a stretch in which the club is playing 13 straight games without a day off.
Burrows’ situation only adds to the uncertainty. He owns a 5.99 ERA in 18 games and has been on the injured list with elbow neuritis since July 6.
He had been lined up to start Tuesday against the White Sox, but shoulder inflammation knocked him off that plan and sent him to West Palm Beach, Fla., for rehab. It was another setback after he had made some encouraging adjustments in three Minor League rehab starts with Sugar Land.
Ronel Blanco took that start instead and needed 88 pitches to get through four scoreless innings. Blanco and Javier are still the biggest wild cards in the group, especially since both have been wildly inconsistent since returning from injuries.
The Astros do have one possible advantage if they can get to October: a best-of-five AL Division Series would require only three starters. The regular season is a different test, though, and Houston still has to navigate the final stretch. The good news there is simple enough - the Astros have off-days on the final three Mondays of the regular season, which should help ease the load on a rotation that has already been stretched to the limit.
In Other News...
Astros Bullpen Suddenly Has A Late-Inning Problem At The Worst Time
The Astros lost another important bullpen arm this week when Steven Okert went on the 15-day injured list retroactive to Sept. 1 with a right hamstring strain. Okert has been a key piece of Houstons relief mix this season, and the timing is rough for a club trying to steady late innings as the schedule tightens.
Houston now has to lean more heavily on the rest of its relief group, with AJ Blubaugh and Bennett Sousa among the pitchers expected to take on a bigger share of the load. Okert is projected to be out until at least Sept. 16, leaving the Astros to patch together some of the innings that often decide close games. [Read more 🡒]
Astros Bullpen Shuffle Could Say A Lot About This Road Trip
The Astros made another bullpen move before facing the Diamondbacks, optioning Kai-Wei Teng to Triple-A Sugar Land and bringing back Miguel Ullola to give the relief group a fresh arm. It is the kind of late-season shuffle contenders make when every outing starts to matter a little more, especially for a club still sitting atop the AL West and trying to keep its October path clean.
Ullola is back in the majors after last pitching on Aug. 18, while Teng heads back down after struggling in recent appearances. Houstons bullpen has been a moving target on this road trip, and with the magic number down to 17, the next few decisions may say plenty about how the Astros plan to manage both the standings and the workload that comes with them. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremy Pea's Slump Is Becoming A Real Astros Problem
Jeremy Pena looked like he had turned a corner in July, when he was driving the ball, getting on base and giving the Astros the kind of spark they need near the top of the lineup. He finished that month batting .381 with a .412 on-base percentage and a 1.110 OPS, and he added six home runs while looking like one of Houstons most dangerous hitters.
Since Aug. 3, though, the picture has changed sharply. Pena has batted .161 over 29 games, and the strikeouts have climbed as his overall production has faded, right as Houstons run output has also taken a step back. For a club that leans on his bat to help set the tone, the slump has become more than a rough stretch - it is starting to show up in the offense around him. [Read more 🡒]