Jeremy Pena walked away from a frightening moment Thursday night with encouraging news in hand for the Astros.
Postgame X-rays on Pena’s left hand were negative, league sources said, after the Houston shortstop was drilled by a 96 mph Gerrit Cole fastball in the top of the third inning at Yankee Stadium. The pitch caught him on the knuckles of his pinkie and ring finger, the kind of blow that can end a night fast. Pena, though, stayed put.
He turned the hit by pitch into a productive evening anyway. Pena reached, scored Houston’s first run on Isaac Paredes’ single, and later finished the job with a solo homer in the seventh inning off Yerry De los Santos. That was his 16th home run of the season.
Houston will treat Pena as day to day going into Friday’s series opener against the New York Mets at Citi Field. There was no immediate sign that an injured list move would be needed, though the Astros could decide to give him a scheduled day off because of how much he has already dealt with physically this season.
This latest scare fits right into a year that has been stop-start for Pena. He fractured his right ring finger in March, missed about five weeks with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain, and then went back on the injured list in late June with a left calf strain.
Just more than a week ago, he was hit by a 100 mph pitch on his right hand against the Los Angeles Angels and briefly left the game before those X-rays came back clean, too.
Even with the time he’s missed, Pena has been a key bat for Houston. The 2022 World Series MVP and 2025 All-Star entered the game hitting .283, and his 16 homers trail only AL MVP contender Yordan Alvarez among Astros hitters.
The Astros backed that up with a 5-1 win over the Yankees, taking two of three in the Bronx and moving to 67-67. Houston now holds a one-game lead over the Texas Rangers in the AL West with 28 games left, and Pena’s health could loom large in how that race plays out.
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For a club built around Jeremy Pena and Yordan Alvarez at the top of the order, Paredes has helped make the offense feel more complete by driving in runs and giving Houston production beyond the obvious names. He has also brought value on the defensive side, which matters even more in a stretch run where every clean inning and every timely swing can tilt a game, and the bigger question now is whether this version of Paredes can hold up when the games get tighter. [Read more 🡒]