The Launch Angle

Dear Mom,

It’s day 21 of this 162 day summer camp. It’s not as fun as you guys told me it would be. I didn’t pack well. I started with 5 pairs of underwear that I was going to use, with a 6th pair to maybe use on wash day. A couple others stashed away at the bottom of my duffel bag for emergencies.

I am on my 10th pair of underwear. All these pairs I brought are old or have holes in them. They rip and tear for no reason. All of them get soiled very easily at the slightest thing. Today I am using a pair of underwear that a kid from Japan threw away.

Thank you for the cookies you sent me, but I am in danger of having to go commando here soon.

Your kid,
Houston Astros

Starting Pitcher #10: Peter Lambert, the last one before we have to start using our toes to count.

Welcome to the 2026 Houston Astros. Take a number, and we’ll call it when it’s your turn to start a major league baseball game. Don’t worry, the line goes fast.

Tonight, Peter Lambert makes his season debut as the starting pitcher for tonight’s first game of a 3 game home series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Lambert is the 10th starting pitcher in a season that’s only 21 games old. This will be the fourth game in a row where the Astros start a pitcher for the first time this season.

Are you familiar with Peter Lambert? Probably not. You probably didn’t think you needed to be. Lambert was signed to the Astros on a minor league deal in the fall, but when it became clear he wasn’t going to make the major league roster, he asked for his release on March 24, 2026, and was granted it. 3 days later, he came back and signed another minor league with the Astros after his look around the free agent market didn’t offer any better opportunities.

A 28 year old right handed pitcher, Lambert spent all of his MLB career from 2019-2024 with the Colorado Rockies. pitching in 74 games (35 starts) across parts of 4 seasons. After starting 19 games in 2019 as a rookie posting an unsightly 7.25 ERA with a mere K/9 rate of 5.9, he underwent Tommy John Surgery and missed the 2020 season. He was primarily used as a reliever after he returned in 2021, and from 2021-2024 posted a 5.71 ERA in 154.1 IP, with a slightly better 7.2 K/9 to go along with a 3.4 BB/9 rate.

After 2024, he was removed from the Rockies’ 40-man roster and elected free agency rather than accept a designation to AAA. He spent 2025 playing for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in NPB, where he posted a 3-11 record and 4.26 ERA in 21 starts, and tied an NPB record by throwing 3 wild pitches in an inning. While his numbers were a little better in Japan than they had been in MLB, his control remained an issue with a 4.02 BB/9 rate on par with his career high 4.26 BB/9 rate he had with the Rockies in 2024.

Tokyo announced they weren’t going to keep him on for 2026, and that’s when he found his way the the Astros organization.

I mean… this guy sounds too good!

Lambert primarily uses a 94-95 mph fastball and a slider/slurve against right handed hitters, and throw his fastball with a changeup to lefties. As you can see from his slidesr from his 2024 Baseball Savant profile, while he can tend to avoid getting hit hard, he doesn’t really fool anyone. Hitters don’t chase, hitters don’t swing and miss, and combined with below average control, that makes for a rough K/BB ratio.

And that’s where the Astros are right now. Starting pitcher #10, a guy cast off from the Rockies, who also was cast off by Japan, and even cast off by the Astros this spring training, before coming back because presumably he couldn’t find anywhere else.

The Astros have certainly had their share of reclamation projects in the pitching department under Brent Strom, and then Josh Miller and Bill Murphy. Hopefully, we’ll be surprised, but there didn’t seem to be a lot changed from his career history during Spring Training, where he allowed 16 hits and 5 walks in 12.1 IP to go with 8 strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Jason Alexander has to be thinking, “what’s it gonna take for me to get a start?” Patience, Jason. (Probably not even that much patience at the rate this season is going.)

Yordan Alvarez: Violently Accurate

To cleanse our palate from Lambert’s sliders, I present to you Yordan Alvarez’ sliders, the major league leader in OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, BB and TB.

Just an absolute sea of red (except for the running part.)

Jim Christopher of Ballpark Nation podcast brought this X post exchange on my feed. Responding to the question of what player intimidated him the most, former Angels MLB pitcher Ty Buttrey said only Yordan Alvarez. A “violently accurate swing”.

I thought that was a pretty good description. In fairness to Ty, he fared decently against Yordan in his career. 4 plate appearances: 1 single in 3 at bats, and a walk. But that 1 single was a blown save on a 105 mph liner to center that scored 2 to tie the game:

Cardinals @ Astros Game Information and Gamethread Details

Opposite Peter Lambert, right hander Kyle Leahy starts for the Cardinals, 1-2 on the season with a 5.14 ERA and 1.71 WHIP.

This post will be updated with starting lineups as they become 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.

Join us again for today’s game. Just join the Discord server using this link: https://launch-angle.com/discord .

For more detailed instructions, please see the Guide to the Launch Angle.

If you’ve participated in game threads 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 courtesy Pixel Pete.