It’s one step forward, two steps back for the 2026 Houston Astros. After losing two to the Yankees, they salvaged a win on Sunday. But it was back to losing ways tonight in Baltimore, who took Game One 5-3.
When the Astros were losing games when it seemed like they were scoring 7+ runs a game, we knew it meant trouble. Since then, the run production has dropped. Meanwhile, the pitching continues to surrender the most runs in baseball.
It was the Astros debut of Kai Wei Teng as a starter, and he didn’t disappoint….because as Astros fans, we don’t expect anything from Astros starters, by far the league’s worst. The Orioles struck early against Teng, scoring two in the first inning on a Gunnar Henderson double, an Adley Rutschman single, and a Samuel Basallo double.
Teng would hold the Os scoreless for the next two innings before giving way to Steven Okert, who put runners on second and third with one out before Ryan Weiss came in to strike out the next two batters and hold the score at 2-0.
In the fourth, the Astros got their first run on a Brice Mathews home run, his second of the year. They would not score again until the eighth inning, before which the Astros were 0-11 with runners in scoring position with eight strikeouts.
A fifth inning, Pete Alonso two-run homer off Weiss, and a Rutschman seventh-inning RBI single. gave the Os a 5-1 lead. In the Astros seventh, they blew a golden opportunity to take the lead when the eight and nine hitters, Cam Smith and Brice Mathews, took second and third base with no outs. Carlos Correa followed with a strikeout, and after an intentional walk to Yordan Alvarez, Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve followed with bases-loaded strikeouts. Paredes whiffed on two out-of-zone pitches after a 3-0 count.
The Astros finally got hits with runners in scoring position in the eighth inning. Following a Christian Walker lead-off double, Dustin Harris tripled him home (his first Astros hit), and then scored on a Brice Mathews single.
One can hope that this game will someday be looked upon as a turning point in the career of former first-round draft pick Mathews, who had three hits and raised his batting average from .136 to .188.
Another bright spot was the performance of back-from-IL Bennett Sousa, who struck out the side in the ninth inning.
On the other hand, Altuve has gone cold, with only two hits in his last 25 PAs. The Astros as a whole outhit the Orioles 11-9, but were only 2-14 with runners in scoring position, and left 10 runners on base.
The plate discipline that seemed to give Altuve so much success at the start of the season has abandoned him. In his last six games, he has only walked once.
Even worse is Cam Smith, who, in his last 43 PAs, has only three hits.
The two teams go again tomorrow in Baltimore.
I’ll be the first to say it: I don’t think we are a good team.
Results tell us you are right. But, we have good players. We can’t convert hits into runs. Our rotation is full of non- established or unproven starters, Burrows, Weiss, Imai, Teng. Hurt starters, Brown. Disappointing pitchers, Javier and LMJ.
Excuses we have plenty, but when you have good players and a bad team, you look at the manager.
It seems like the team is not ready for the regular season, their preparation is behind schedule and, therefore, poor performance and injuries galore. We have seen this movie before.
Forgot Lambert
THE FIRST!?!?! LOL
so the Teng-Weiss combination was still good for 5 ER
I want to believe they are much better than that. 😁