To be honest, entering this season, I was much more bullish about the pitching staff than the lineup. Only 11 games into the season, I might eventually be proven correct in that assessment. But the early returns for the pitching staff haven’t been great, let alone good. The road won’t be getting easier any time soon with Hunter Brown out for who knows how long, along with a stretch of 13 games with no off-days coming up. A six-man rotation when you’re already missing your ace, with arguably two of your best three relievers still on the IL? Not a recipe for success if you ask me.
But the lineup has continued to show up in an unexpected way, the best in baseball so far by wRC+ and runs scored. And, honestly, that’s likely this team’s best hope to win for a while. Look at how the Astros fare as a lineup compared to their contemporaries as a pitching staff.
Sooner or later, the lineup will cool off a bit. And the pitching staff will (hopefully) perform closer to expectations, even without Brown. Tatsuya Imai’s last start, for example, was quite encouraging. If Mike Burrows can refine his command, Lance McCullers Jr. can continue to look like a viable Major League starting pitcher, and Cristian Javier can at least absorb some innings without getting blown out, you could survive with an above-average offense as additional support.
But, even if that happens, there will be instances when you can’t outslug your own pitching staff. The last two games prove as much. Entering today, there have been 14 instances since the 2021 season when a team has scored at least 17 total runs across a two-game span, only to lose both games. The Astros will now have the 15th two-game span since 2021 to score at least that many runs (10 against the A’s on Sunday, 7 tonight against the Rockies) and still end up with two losses. It’ll only be the second time in club history to lose back-to-back games when Houston had scored at least a combined 17 runs; the first instance was back in 1962 when the Colt .45’s played a doubleheader against the Reds on July 8, 1962, losing the first game 12-8 and the second game 12-11.
Note: The hyperlink information is courtesy of Stathead Baseball (Baseball-Reference)
This game against the Rockies, however, started off promising. The Astros would score a pair of first-inning runs (Carlos Correa’s RBI double followed by Christian Walker’s RBI single) to claim a quick 2-0 lead. Cody Bolton would hold Colorado scoreless through the first four innings, with Cam Smith’s monster shot in the top half of the fourth to make the score 3-0.
But in baseball, you learn not to put too much confidence into any lead, much less at Coors Field. Leads have a way of suddenly disappearing at that altitude, and it certainly did once again. This time, Bolton couldn’t finish the inning, being pulled in favor of Ryan Weiss after allowing the first two runners on base before getting Jake McCarthy out on a sacrifice bunt. With runners on second and third with one out, it was on Weiss to escape the inning. You could argue that he did escape it, but not without some serious issues that cost the Astros the game.
Ultimately, the Rockies would score eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning (two charged to Bolton, six to Weiss). At one point, Weiss threw 34 pitches in the fifth and generated zero swing-and-misses. Yes, it is Coors Field, so the usual assumptions about pitching tend to lose potency. But, still a big yikes from Weiss.
With a bullpen light on available arms, however, it was on Weiss to absorb some innings. Other than a solo home run by Troy Johnston in the sixth to make it a 9-4 score, he actually recovered a bit following that disastrous fifth inning. The Astros would try to assemble another comeback of their own, with the gap closing from 9-4 to 9-7 by the time we got to two outs in the top of the eighth. Alas, the last best chance for Houston didn’t convert, with Jose Altuve grounding out with the bases loaded. Enyel de los Santos would make his 2026 debut in the ninth inning, throwing a scoreless frame. The lineup, however, didn’t have any comeback magic left in the tank in the bottom half of the ninth, with all three Astros hitters going down in order.
Another bad loss on the heels of another bad loss, with both games being decided by a pitching staff that couldn’t maintain a lead. That’s not good. We’ll see if Burrows can stop that trend on Tuesday with Kyle Freeland starting opposite for the Rockies.
Feature photo from @rockies on X, Source
i heard the Astros had a pitching lab that was supposed to fix shitty pitchers? where they at?
File under (“shoulda woulda coulda”)
Espada’s stated aim was to get 3 or 4 innings out of Bolton, and then move to Weiss for some more bulk innings.
He ought to have stuck to his plan. I think he got greedy, trying to squeeze a fifth inning out of Bolton, who had never started an MLB game before, and was already at 57 pitches after 4 innings. (His last game, a 3 inning save, he threw 50 pitches)
Bolton did what he asked and pitched 4 scoreless innings. At that point, let Weiss start the 5th in a clean inning. Maybe it still ends up the way it did, but that’s more defnesible.
But that’s not how they went, and Bolton had to be pulled with 2 on and 1 out in the 5th.
THEN Espada went to Weiss, but really that’s the time to use a higher leverage reliever, because a 3 run game in the 5th with 2 runners on , 1 out IS high leverage (2.4 leverage index by this table). Then if you get out of the jam (or even if you don’t), you can have Weiss start the 6th in a clean inning.
All that may not have mattered, but that’s the way I see how it should have been handled. Easy for me to say, though.