And Sunday’s game is why Friday’s loss especially stings.
You’ve got to give credit when it is due, though: Jacob Misiorowski was absolutely fantastic across his seven innings today. Only three hits allowed, one hit by pitch, no walks, and struck out eight. Absolutely electric stuff, with his first twenty pitches (all fastballs) clocking in 100 mph or higher. I mean, that’s utterly ridiculous. There is only so much you can do against someone like him when he is locked in.
To no one’s great surprise, the Astros’ lineup struggled. Two singles and only one extra base hit, which was a double by Isaac Paredes in the fourth inning. Other than a bases-loaded situation in the third inning that concluded with a groundout by Christian Walker, Houston never truly threatened in this game. There were some quality at-bats in this game from the Astros, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes the lack of results comes when an opposing pitcher is throwing on a different level at the moment.
There were some encouraging moments for the Astros, particularly for Tatsuya Imai, who threw a whopping 110 pitches. Other than Jake Bauers’ two-run home run in the fourth inning to the Crawford Boxes, the right-hander performed well, striking out five in six innings. In fact, that home run to Bauers had a .350 expected batting average and would have been a home run in only six other ballparks other than Daikin. Four-seam velocity was 0.5 mph higher on average compared to his past starts. On most other days, Imai’s start would’ve been the talk of the game. Unfortunately for him and the Astros, Misiorowski was even better.
Moving forward, it’ll be a huge development if Imai can continue building on this string of decent starts. He pitched well enough today to lower his season ERA from 6.17 to 5.52, which could be viewed as a positive and a negative. In any case, Imai’s improvement over the past couple of weeks could prove vital, especially with Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier still on the IL. The chances still don’t look good with a 27-34 record, but a trustworthy Imai would further stabilize this pitching staff. As we all know, you can never have enough pitching.
Featured photo from Astros on X
So I didn’t catch all of this game, but I found it peculiar that at 101 pitches, Joe stuck with Imai to get the last out of the 6th inning.
I get that he was one out away from a quality start, and I think he was hoping to get him through the sixth quickly and pull him if there were any baserunners, but probably didn’t anticipate that the first 2 outs would take 15 pitches.
But then he’s at 101 pitches, and sure you want him to get that quality start for his confidence, but the guy coming up to bat is also the guy that tagged him for the 2 run homer last time up.
Plus you got an off day coming up, so you can be a little more liberal with your pen. Minor quibble, he got Bauers out (albeit with 9 pitches) but felt like Joe was definitely squeezing the rock there.
Dusty style. Of course.
he did that with JV in the world series too even, i remember. verlander was awful but dusty left him in until he completed 5 innings so he could mark off that he got a world series win as a pitcher.
Hader is coming back very soon. Espada! Repeat after me “Hader is ONE inning pitcher. ONE! Not one and a half, ONE!”
When he finishes one inning, he doesn’t come back the next inning and pitch again, no. Once he leaves the field, he is done.
Encouraging performance by Santa and Pearson. They seem to be for real, SSS aside, so far so good. This team may gel and cross the finish line on time, if well managed.
Give me hope, Cody.
By the way, all those minor trades and signings for unheralded players are paying off. DB is living up to his reputation as a super scout. Once we empty the IL, this team could make a run for the division (If well managed).
Because the division is terrible. DB admitted himself he wasn’t the guy who found Teng. What he did put together was a one, two, three of Weiss, LMJ, Javier. He anchored it with a first-time state-side Japanese pitcher and Burrows who had less than 100 innings pitched in the bigs. He also traded Dubon for Nick Allen to save money, thrn never used said saves money. Lambert, I believe, was a guy that he specifically had his eye on in Spring Training, yet that doesn’t mean it was his guy either. History will judge Dana harshly.
Wait! Pearson, Shewmake, Trammell…take them all. They have contributed, not just filled the gaps. The division is terrible, but it is what it is. DB’s depth is outstanding. We are still afloat because of the depth of the roster and the excellent coaches (ex Espada 😁).
I don’t know how independent is DB, but the depth, I suspect, is all DB.
I guess if I had to miss a game this would be the one I’d pick.