The Launch Angle

This game, this team. I don’t know where to start. Heck, I am not even sure if this team is even good. But I’ll never turn my nose up at a win.

The first 4 2/3 innings were a rough watch, though. Cristian Javier, whom I am a huge fan of, might be closer to washed at this point in his career than I would care to admit. I say that somewhat jokingly, as this could be an overreaction on my part, but also seriously. I knew coming off Tommy John surgery that it would take some time for him to shake off any rust. Honestly, I kind of gave him a pass in my mind when thinking about last season. 2026 is the season that I feel like we can adequately gauge whether that diminished form was his new normal.

I’m sorry, I wasn’t impressed, although I did appreciate his Framber Valdez impersonation with three groundball double plays. For context, Javier has only 21 groundball double plays for his entire career entering Saturday.

Here’s the thing about Javier: he has little margin for error when he isn’t at his best or relatively close to it. It is one thing to have a quality four-seam fastball with a flatter-than-expected approach to the plate; when used correctly, you can ride that thing to success more times than not. But once one, or both, of those attributes decay, well, you get starts like this one. A four-seam fastball averaging not even 93 mph, without its signature feature? I pause when pondering what Javier’s long-term future could become if that aspect of his game doesn’t fully return.

The Angels weren’t sweating him at all in this start, with the right-hander allowing six earned runs on four hits and four walks. The scary part for Javier? He only generated one strikeout (Zach Neto leading off the game) and had a grand total of only six whiffs. That four-seam fastball that we all love and adore back in 2021 and 2022? The Angels swung at it 19 times, with only three whiffs. I’m already nervous for his next start.

However, let’s circle back to this game. While Javier avoided major damage in the first few innings, limiting the Angels to three runs through four innings, it was becoming clear that the wheels may come off at any time. And it did in that fifth inning.

Mercifully, Javier’s day was done after Nolan Schanuel‘s ground ball double play, although it did score a run to make it 5-0. Kai-Wei Teng‘s wild pitch that allowed Neto to score, making it 6-0, also didn’t help matters. But getting out of that inning, even with some damage done, was better than letting the onslaught continue.

With how this season has started, I didn’t expect much of a comeback from the Astros. The lineup through the first 23 innings of the season has done everything but actually hit well. Yes, I know that a sample size like this one is hardly indicative of anything at this point. I get it. But a person can only take so much of watching Cam Smith and Yainer Diaz whiffing at obvious balls close to the dirt before you start questioning your fandom.

However, something miraculous happened next: the lineup actually did something positive. With two outs. I’m still in a minor state of shock.

At first, I wasn’t sure if the Astros would convert. It all seemed for naught — singles by Jake Meyers and Jose Altuve — followed up by Yordan Alvarez‘s strikeout looking. Isaac Paredes was coming up, yes, so my hope wasn’t completely extinguished. But it was getting close. I mean, have you watched the first two games, or the 2025 season for that matter? But Paredes finally did something that hardly anyone else had done this season with runners in scoring position: hit.

Although that much shy of a three-run dinger to the Crawford Boxes, a pair of runs in that spot already tied up Houston’s run scoring total in the first two games, plus some change. Better than nothing, right? Then Carlos Correa got an RBI single in the very next at-bat to make it a 6-3 game after five.

But even with three runs, my confidence was still recovering. For one, the lineup had to continue to hit for any comeback attempt to become more realistic. Second, the pitching staff had to actually not give up any runs, easier said than done. Thankfully, Teng was able to make quick work of the Angels in the top half of the sixth, setting up a quite consequential bottom half of the inning.

I mean, that’s a wild series of events. Diaz grounds out for the first out (“What a surprise,” I thought, in the most sarcastic tone you can imagine). Meyers gets on base courtesy of a throwing error. Joey Loperfido gets a hit, moving Meyers to third. But Altuve then strikes out swinging for the second out. Any confidence I had in the fifth inning was starting to fade. But a wild pitch from Walbert Urena provided a much-needed jolt, not only for me but the Astros as well.

Facing Yordan Alvarez in a now 6-4 game with a runner on second, manager Kurt Suzuki decided not to tempt fate and intentionally walked the slugger for the second time in this series. Paredes then did what he does best: put together a quality plate appearance. This time, it was a walk to help set up a bases-loaded situation for Correa.

Although it was tapper back to the pitcher on a 0-2 count, Correa did put the ball in play and forced the Angels to do something with it. Thankfully, Urena conceded the ball to Logan O’Hoppe, who made an errant throw to first base wide that allowed a pair of runners to score. Suddenly, a 6-0 deficit entering the bottom half of the fifth inning turned into a 6-6 tied game with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

The floodgates opened at that point. Christian Walker had an RBI single, with an assist from Urena, to finally give the Astros their first lead of the season, 7-6. Cam Smith then drew a walk to load the bases again, to help set up Diaz’s RBI single to drive in a pair. Now 9-6, Meyers would pad the lead with an RBI double, driving in two to make it 11-6 before Loperfido would ground out in the next at-bat.

The next couple of innings were largely uneventful. Altuve had another TOOTBLAN, this time trying to take home plate. The Angels couldn’t solve Teng or Bryan King. Entering the top half of the ninth, with an 11-6 lead, you had to feel pretty good that the Astros were about to earn their first win of the season.

Since there hasn’t been a situation to use Bryan Abreu thus far in 2026, you figured he was due for some work with a five-run lead. But Abreu is prone, upon occasion, to giving up runs in bunches. We saw that happen a few times against the Mariners last season, as well as against other teams. Hey, it happens. Relievers aren’t perfect.

With Abreu, however, it seems to happen more often than typical. I don’t have the numbers to back me up on that assertion, but I can’t shake that feeling. That or the 2025 season really did scar me. In any case, Abreu has a habit of making things unnecessarily interesting. And he did just that, allowing the Angels to put two runners on base with two outs to boot. Schanuel made him pay the price, hitting a three-run shot to right field, scoring Neto and Mike Trout.

Suddenly, a three-run lead in the ninth inning feels a bit more precarious. Good thing for the Astros and Abreu was the fact that they had two outs, and Jorge Soler struck out nearly 30% of the time last season. While Houston did have their own pair of two-out rallies in this game alone, so anything can happen, you have to feel good about Abreu’s chances here. And he did the job, striking out Soler to end the game and preserve the victory.

What was once a 6-0 deficit a little more than halfway through the game turned into a wild 11-9 win, the first of the season for the Astros. Now 1-2, Houston will try to salvage a series split on Sunday afternoon. This time, we get to see Tatsuya Imai make his official Major League debut, starting opposite Jack Kochanowicz. Should be a fun game to watch, hopefully.

Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link