I don’t even know where to start with this pitching staff right now. Injuries have basically decimated the starting rotation after only 15 games. Ineffectiveness is the common theme with the available arms and some of the injured ones. The bullpen is already overused and running on fumes. Bryan Abreu looks like a shell of himself at the moment. There is a chance this season could turn ugly fast for the Astros, barring a dramatic shift in their run prevention.
This game started off on a somewhat encouraging note, I guess. Lance McCullers Jr. coughed up two runs in the bottom of the first, but the Astros scored seven runs in the next three innings to take a 7-2 lead after four. Taylor Trammell continues to make a point against one of his former teams, with his bases-clearing double in the second to score three runs. Yordan Alvarez and Cam Smith were responsible for three more in the third. Isaac Paredes drove in the seventh and final run of the game for Houston in the fourth. To put up seven runs against this Mariners’ pitching staff isn’t an easy feat. Smith, in particular, has looked much better at the plate this season, especially after those first few games against the Angels.
With decent pitching, this game should’ve been a win for the Astros more times than not. Unfortunately, the opposite is true in 2026: this staff is the worst in baseball through 15 games. But McCullers, following that choppy first inning, managed to find a groove for the next few frames. That fifth inning, however, is when everything fell apart. Between him and Steven Okert, Seattle would rally to score five runs to tie the game at 7-7. And, just like that, any optimism I had for this losing streak to end evaporated. I mean, we all could see it coming that this bullpen would eventually blow the game.
The Astros would have chances to break the tie at various points in the later innings, with multiple baserunners in the seventh, eighth, and ninth. Alas, the lineup couldn’t convert when it mattered, although it is a bit of a reach to outright blame them for this latest failure. That pitching staff, once again, should bear most of that ire. I would also assign some fault to Joe Espada, who arguably left McCullers in too long in the fifth and put Abreu out there in the ninth inning once again.
For those keeping count, Abreu has yet to have a scoreless appearance this season, including tonight’s latest failure. Yes, I know that Espada doesn’t exactly have the best options available to him at the moment and he was trying to squeeze as many outs as possible with McCullers. This staff is limited, both in available arms and capable pitchers in high-leverage situations. And Abreu has that track record of past successes. But, sooner or later, you have to try something different if the desirable results aren’t following.
Even in the midst of a six-game losing streak, the Astros are 6-9. The season is just 15 games old, with 147 games remaining. It is certainly possible that this pitching staff somewhat regresses closer to the mean sooner rather than later. But these games still count and Houston can ill afford to give up too much ground in the AL West. Of course, it may not matter if this pitching staff doesn’t meaningfully improve. If that improvement doesn’t manifest soon, this season could derail before it ever really started.
Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link
I saw 7-2 and thought
After 3.1 innings the offense turned the switch off. From 10 hits and 7 runs to 7 hits and no runs.
Mariners beat us with 7 hits total. 8 RBIs by the first 3 batters in the lineup.
An asymmetric offense.
This is the 8th game where we’ve scored 7+ runs. 👍
This is the 3rd game we’ve lost where we’ve scored 7+ runs. 👎
That happened once last year (1 out of 34)
But wait there’s more
That is a special kind of suck
With what we now have for pitching concerning our starters unable to reach the 6th inning, it could be conceivable that we construct a pitching staff that piggy-backs games like in High-A or Low-A Ball. It’s not a jab by any means, it’s a solution to a problem. Joe needs to find some reason here. If it’s ugly, good. Let it be ugly. But you will be giving your team the best shot to win. Only ask your starters to go 4 innings, knowing your next will give you 4. If it blows up, at least you’re sending a message to Jimmy and Dana that I don’t have the necessary tools to succeed. Also, no more Abreu in the 9th. That should be evident. He’s lost 3mph on his high heat, and he has no control. This will be a very trying year for our 26’ Astros.
I will defend Espada’s use of Abreu when he did. You definitely didn’t want to use Abreu in extra innings with an inherited runner bc of his control issues. I think, once the game was tied, Espada was hoping the Astros would retake the lead, and he could avoid using Abreu altogether. Once the game got to the 9th inning still tied, with the bottom of the M’s order due up, at that point it was probably the best time to use Abreu.
In any case options were limited. It’s not like when our rotation was consistently giving us 6-7 innings every day there was a host of pen arms ready to get up. It was almost Abreu by default.
In any case, Abreu is not just a little off, there’s wholesale things he needs to work out, and until Hader gets back, I think it should be closer/high leverage by committee and unless arms are used up, letting Abreu figure this out in lower leverage situations in the meantime.
The first place to start is having starters that can pitch 5 innings. until that happens the BP will continue to be overworked. Im not optimistic Bolton will be the one to turn that corner today
Juice’d baseballs again ?
just brainstorming here….but could Teng be competent at closer? I know King probably is a better choice, but we have so few choices to come into high leverage situations earlier in the game, he may need to be reserved for those roles.