The Houston Astros escaped their 2026 opening series with a split. The first two for the Angels, the next two for the Astros.
Getting two games of the four was not because of starting pitching. Hunter Brown pumped strike after strike in a scoreless outing, but the pitch count ramped up quickly and he was unable to make it through five innings. Mike Burrows made it into the sixth inning, but allowed 5 runs, which proved insurmountable. Cristian Javier let 6 runs go, and it was only thanks to an 8 run inning assisted by Angels players doing Angels things on defense that the Astros managed to win. And yesterday, new pitcher Tetsuya Imai had the shortest outing of any of the starters, unable to make it out of the third inning.
So in Game 5, we turn to “Old Reliable”: Lance McCullers, Jr. Lance of 2017 All-Star fame. Lance of “24 straight curveballs to send the Astros to the 2017 World Series” fame. Lance, of “last pitcher to record an RBI in the World Series” fame.
Yep. “Old Reliable.”
Except that he’s not really that reliable anymore. Last year he pitched for the first time since 2022, and it was madness to think that he could be the same pitcher he was before his numerous injuries. He had been broken down and rebuilt, and sure his baseball card still says “Lance McCullers, Jr.” but was he a Ship of Theseus? Lance in name only?
His stats and advanced metrics thought so. After a career of never having higher than a 3.69 xFIP, he posted a 5.12 xFIP in 2025. His career high HR/9 was 0.84 in 2018. He nearly doubled that to 1.63 in 2025. His strikeout rate was still there. His 9.92 K/9 rate was on par with the rest of his career, but his BB/9 rate in 2025 was an astounding 6.34.
But maybe this was still Lance. Just an older Lance. After all, he admitted that he was never a control pitcher, he was always a stuff pitcher. The strikeout rate says the stuff is still there. The walk rate says any control he had with it had diminished.
So not really “Old Reliable”. Just “Old”?
Except he’s not that old either. It doesn’t feel that way because he’s been an Astro for so long. Only Jose Altuve is longer tenured. Lance is the only remaining member besides Altuve from the 2017 World Series team. (Edit: Forgot about Correa.) But Lance is just 32. No spring chicken, but not a crazy age for pitcher. This isn’t early 40’s Justin Verlander.
He may, however, be at the end of his career with the Astros. This is the last year of his 5 year $85 million contract, and it’s difficult to see Houston bringing him back after the poor value they’ve gotten from the contract due to injuries. It’s been frustrating for the Astros, it’s been frustrating for the fans, and certainly it’s been frustrating for Lance.
I don’t know what to expect from 2026 Lance McCullers, Jr. But there’s still a lot of time for #43 to make some more special memories in an Astros uniform. The first quality start of the year could be one of them.
Venezuelan World Baseball Classic Final starting pitcher and hero Ranger Suarez takes the mound for the Red Sox, and I’m sure it will be emotional seeing his WBC manager Omar Lopez, the Astros Bench Coach again. He’s a lefty, so Lopeheads shouldn’t get their hopes up to see Joey Loperfido in the starting lineup.
This piece will be updated as starting lineups are made available.
Update:
The game will be broadcast at 7:10 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.
We hope you will join us and the rest of the Launch Angle community for the game! The turnout has been fantastic on the TLA Discord Server for the game threads:
| Date | Opponent | Links | Result | Participants | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/26/26 | LAA | Preview Recap | L 3-0 | 27 | 1064 |
| 3/27/26 | LAA | Preview Recap | L 6-2 | 18 | 1179 |
| 3/28/26 | LAA | Preview Recap | W 9-11 | 24 | 916 |
| 3/29/26 | LAA | Preview Recap | W 7-9 | 25 | 1201 |
Here is a sample from yesterday’s in-game discourse:
Seriously though, “Chase the Fight” is a terrible slogan.
Join us again for today’s game. Just join the Discord server using this link: https://launch-angle.com/discord .
You’ll notice that the TLA Discord invitation link is much cleaner and easier to remember for the purposes of sharing with other Astros fans. So pass it on!
If you’ve participated in gamethreads on other Astros sites in the past, you will probably see a lot of familiar names. Chat, lurk, do whatever! (But please say “hi”, so we know you’re not a bot.)
Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link.
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