The Astros are finally back home and licking their wounds following a horrific 1-9 road trip. With a pitching staff that has clearly seen better days, however, a return to familiar settings may not be the remedy this team needs to reverse its recent woes.
Realistically, there isn’t an obvious path forward for the Astros to navigate these turbulent waters with the starting rotation. Mike Burrows, who currently sports a 6.55 ERA and 5.60 FIP, is probably at the top of this staff’s pecking order. Lance McCullers Jr. and Colton Gordon are probably second and third, with Spencer Arrighetti perhaps jumping ahead of all three once he is officially added to the active roster. But, of course, the rotation order doesn’t really matter at this point. It is about finding quality starts among this group of arms, if possible. And there doesn’t appear to be an abundance of those readily available.
Additionally, the bullpen remains well below average. Bryan Abreu finally had that elusive scoreless appearance a couple of days ago, but his performance thus far doesn’t warrant any warm, fuzzy feelings. Bryan King has been the best of the bunch, with some encouraging appearances from Kai-Wei Teng and Enyel De Los Santos. Until the workload decreases, though, I think the bullpen will continue to have its issues, even if some individual performances occasionally help buoy the unit.
Rockies @ Astros Game Information and Gamethread Details
If the Astros wanted a series where they could possibly reset a bit, then this three-game set against the Rockies might help. Of course, I kind of thought the same thing when they played that three-game set in Denver last week. We all remember what happened there.
I’ll sound like a broken record because everyone already knows, but any rebound hinges on the starting pitchers. Sure, Gordon might not exactly “wow” anyone. You know what he can do, though? Possibly throw five to six innings of just good enough to give you a chance to win. In 2025, the lefty had ten starts when he pitched at least five innings, only allowing more than three earned runs in four of those starts. Of course, Gordon’s profile offers some downside risk, namely the lack of overpowering stuff and the idea that you probably don’t want to expose him to an opposing lineup more than twice. It is also possible that he might last three to four innings, allowing three to five runs. But, hey, that’s still an improvement compared to what we’ve seen across the last ten games, so that downside risk be damned.
Houston’s lineup does get another crack at Michael Lorenzen again, so hopefully, they can get back on track a bit themselves. With Jeremy Peña on the IL, that infield logjam will remain temporarily resolved. Carlos Correa gets the start at shortstop with Isaac Paredes at third base. Jose Altuve will be at second base and Yordan Alvarez will be the designated hitter. Christian Walker starts at first base, and Christian Vázquez will catch Gordon. With Alvarez as the DH, the outfield configuration today is Cam Smith in right, Joey Loperfido in center, and Brice Matthews in left.
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.
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Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link
