Entering Friday, only two starting rotations — the Angels and White Sox — have allowed more earned runs than the Astros to start the 2026 season. That won’t be the case any longer, with Cristian Javier allowing six earned runs to vault Houston into first place in that regard. Not exactly where any team wants to be, even if we’re only eight games into the season.
To be fair to the rest of the staff, Javier is responsible for 12 of those 25 earned runs. His first two starts have proven largely negative, with little reason for any optimism at the moment. As we already know, Javier’s entire arsenal hinges on the effectiveness of his four-seam fastball, perhaps more famously known as his “invisiball”. It was arguably at its best in the 2021-22 timeframe, when it averaged around 93.5 to 93.8 mph, with peaks pushing 95 mph upon occasion. Alas, the velocity has only partially recovered since Tommy John surgery, and his four-seam looks increasingly ordinary in terms of shape. And hittable.
Combine a deteriorating fastball with poor command, well, you get Friday night’s results against the A’s. Six earned runs on 82 pitches across only 3 2/3 innings. For Javier, the first two starts of the season ought to create legitimate concern about his viability in the rotation for at least the near future. Whether anything actually changes is left to be seen, especially with the schedule later this month essentially making a six-man rotation a must.
However, Yainer Diaz didn’t help matters by misreading a pop-up in the infield in that fourth inning, which would have limited the damage in the fourth inning. Following that defensive blunder, Javier’s day was mercifully done, with Roddery Muñoz taking over. And, just like that, a 4-1 game still within reach was morphed into a 10-1 blowout.
Other than a few runs later in the game, the Astros basically conceded the game when removing Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez not too long afterward. The A’s would tack on another run in the fifth inning to make it 11-1. Houston would eventually add a few more runs in the later innings, making it 11-4. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly enough to change the outcome of this game or set up another rally.
Overall, this is a game to flush down the toilet. Not a whole lot of good came out of this one. With that said, a 5-3 start to the season is better than the alternative. The question is how the rotation will hold up, especially if Javier is unable to get even relatively close to his peak form. I feel doubtful about that possibility, though.
Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link
I’ve been down on Yainer as a catcher for a while, but I think Christian Walker should’ve been more aggressive on that popup and taken charge. That was not an easy play for a catcher, yet one most catcher’s would make.
Really the pitcher should be able to catch routine pop flies (they’ve been doing it since they were kids) but nobody ever lets pitchers do anything.
It’s not August. Leave the regulars in for a couple more innings.