The Astros got the kind of road win that can fool you for a night.
They outlasted the Yankees 9-7 on Tuesday in the Bronx, survived a back-and-forth slugfest, and left with a half-game lead over the Texas Rangers after Texas lost. Yainer Diaz powered the offense with two home runs.
Jeremy Peña added another. Yordan Alvarez tripled.
Houston’s bats did enough to turn the night into a celebration.
But the win didn’t solve the problem staring back at the Astros in the middle of the rotation.
Ethan Pecko, making his second major league start, was hit hard again. He allowed five runs on five hits in 4.1 innings, walked four and struck out just one.
He also needed 88 pitches to get through those 4.1 innings, another short outing that put pressure on Houston’s bullpen. One start earlier, he threw 89 pitches in just 3.2 innings.
The damage against New York came in chunks. Cody Bellinger crushed a three-run homer.
Luis Garcia followed with a two-run shot. Pecko’s first big league start was better in the run column - four strikeouts and only two runs allowed against the Angels in a 3-2 game - but the shape of the outing was similar.
The pitch count climbed fast, the innings disappeared, and hitters kept him in the strike zone more than he wanted.
That’s the real issue with Pecko right now. The walks are piling up, and when a pitcher doesn’t have a huge cushion for error, those free passes turn into trouble quickly.
Houston is already leaning on its 17th starting pitcher of the season, which ties a franchise record. Pecko wasn’t brought in as a long-term answer so much as a response to the rotation problems that have followed the club from the start of the year.
He’s 24 and still coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome. His game is built on a funky arm slot and deception rather than overpowering stuff, which means the margin gets thin in a hurry.
That kind of profile can work, but only when the command holds up. When it doesn’t, the walks become louder and the mistakes get punished.
There were hints of that in the minors, too. During a strong stretch at Triple-A Sugar Land, his swing-and-miss numbers started to fade even though the results stayed decent.
That can carry against lesser hitters. It gets a lot tougher against a Yankees lineup willing to take borderline pitches and force a young starter into the zone.
Houston’s offense covered the first start without much drama. Tuesday was different.
The Astros had to come from behind, then scored three in the eighth to grab the lead before adding another in the ninth on a Cam Smith triple and a Diaz single for insurance. For one night, the lineup was good enough to make the whole thing work.
That doesn’t mean it’s sustainable.
The Astros are 66-66, sitting in first place while still hanging around the Wild Card race for that third spot. Joe Espada can’t afford to keep asking the bullpen to bridge four or five innings every fifth day, especially not when that need keeps coming around.
Pecko needs more time. Houston doesn’t really have it.
Tuesday’s win was real, and nobody in the clubhouse is turning it down. But it also served as another reminder that the club still needs dependable starting pitching, and it doesn’t have enough of it.
Pecko has now walked more hitters than he’s struck out in his first two big league starts. Diaz and Alvarez can rescue a night.
They can’t do it every night. Eventually, the Astros need Pecko to give them five or six innings and take some of the load off an offense that has been uneven itself.
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Hunter Brown Gave Astros Fans Exactly What This Rotation Needed
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Just as important for Houston, the outing snapped a recent trend that had left the staff leaning heavily on the bullpen, with Brown becoming the first Astros starter in 14 games to reach six innings. The win also gave the lineup a timely lift in support, and the combination of length and effectiveness was exactly the kind of night the Astros needed as they try to settle things down behind their rotation. [Read more 🡒]