The Houston Astros play their third game of Spring Training against the New York Mets in the Mets’ spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida, still looking for their first 2026 entry into the win column, after coming up a run short in games against the Nationals and Cardinals.
Of course, wins are meaningless in February. For the players, it’s about getting reps, and for the coaches, front office, and we fans with opinions of no import, it’s about getting looks at those reps. On Sunday, the Astros got a 2 inning look at one of their newer acquisitions, starting pitcher Mike Burrows, who looked sharp, striking out two, walking one and allowing one hit with no runs over the 2 frames. At this stage of spring, it’s natural for pitchers (who have been in camp longer) to look better, but it was nice to see nonetheless.
Today, the Astros send Jason Alexander to the hill. In 2025, Alexander was a nice surprise posting a 3.66 ERA in 14 games (13 starts), good enough for a 115 ERA+. For awhile, it really was starting to look like “The Summer of George” , as the Astros won every start Alexander had from July 29 through September 15, like clockwork. His advanced stats like xFIP and SIERA suggested there was more than a little luck involved though, and it eventually caught up to him in his second last start of the season on September 21, a crucial game against the Mariners, in which he lasted just 1.1 innings, after allowing 7 runs.
The Astros’ starting rotation is much more crowded this year than it was last year. Alexander looks to be fighting for a roster spot, and most likely starts the season down at Sugarland. Given how frequent injuries are to starting pitchers these days (the Astros started 15 different pitchers in 2025), it’s still a good bet that Alexander will start a game for the big club at some point this year. And hopefully reproduce some more “Summer of George.”
The rest of the lineup is as follows in this post by Matt Kawahara on X:
Cam Smith, who beautifully made the defensive transition from being a third baseman in the minors to right field in the majors, gets a look today in center field.
Today’s game is televised, but with the Mets’ broadcast team on SNY. But you can still watch using MLBtv.
Come join your fellow TLA readers in watching and discussing the game! You can post in the comments here on this page or you can join the Launch Angle’s discord server. Just use this link to join: https://discord.gg/DKXDJw9qF. For those of you who have participated in gamethreads at other site(s) in the past, you’ll probably recognize some familiar names and fellow Astros fans. Here is a sample of the Discord server gamethread from the last game:
Hope to see you here or there! Go Stros!
(Feature photo courtesy Pixel Pete.)
