The Launch Angle

It’s 6/9 and Game 69 of the season, so let’s mark the occasion by highlighting 6.9 nice things about the Astros season so far.

#1 – Yordan Alvarez Doing Yordan things… Nice

Yordan’s 2026 offensive campaign has easily been the highlight of this season. It’s not an understatement to say Yordan is a generational hitter. He ranks 6th in career OPS among all left handed hitters in MLB history. Everyone in this top 10 is a Hall of Famer except three players: Yordan, Barry Bonds, and Shohei Ohtani. That is incredible company.

He has a chance to break the Astros franchise single-season home run record. He has a shot at the Triple Crown. He has a shot at AL MVP as a primary designated hitter, something for which there is precedent for, as Ohtani won the NL MVP as a designated hitter in 2024.

When he’s up to bat, you stop what you’re doing and watch. When he walks, you’re almost disappointed, like you’ve been robbed of seeing history.

#2 – The Combined No-Hitter in Arlington… Nice

No matter how the rest of this season turns out, we will always have the no-hitter in Arlington. No-hitters are always great, but against the Rangers, it’s extra sweet. It came on the heels of a sweep of the Cubs, a punctuation mark to rally the team and declare that the team, that just 5 days prior was 11 games below .500 and 6 games out of the division, still had life left. By the end of the Rangers series, the Astros would pull within 2.5 games of the division.

Tatsuya Imai, who looked lost all season (and in the first inning of this game too) found the North Star, pitched 6 hitless innings, and has been on the right track since. Okert chipped in another frame, and rookie Alimber Santa made his MLB debut by closing it out, closing the door with his first major league strikeout.

It’s easy to dismiss the no-hitter, because the Astros seem to throw them so often. But they’re suposed to be rare. They are rare, just not for the Astros. I called my kids down from bedtime to watch the 9th inning, because I thought it was a special moment they should see. They weren’t that excited.

“Again?” my 10 year old asked.

“Yes, again,” I said, “Look, it’s not supposed to happen every year like this.”

But it does, and it’s awesome. Even if that means every year we get those pieces from MLB.com, “Revisit Every Astros No-Hitter”, like we didn’t just revisit them 6 times in the last 7 years.

#3 – Santa Makes The Nice List… Nice

It’s a Nice List. Of course, Santa’s involved. Astros fans believe in Santa.

It’s hard not to, he’s been with the team for 2 weeks, and he’s already an option on the StroPoll for who would you want to go to Disneyland with.

Okay, he didn’t win, but he’s on the ballot, despite most casual Astros fans not knowing who he was a month ago. Recording your first major league strikeout in your first major league appearance closing out a no-hitter will get you some immediate press. His infectious positive attitude and natural gregarious air wins people over quickly.

Is there anyone in this group of rookies happier to go on a coffee run than Alimber Santa?

Quality pitches wins fans over even quicker, and his stuff has played well in the majors. He’s excited when he gets up in the pen. So am I.

#4 – Christian Walker and the Magic Mustache… Nice

Christian Walker went with the “Mustache, no Beard” look that you used to see on the Yankees because that was as much facial hair as they would allow. The result was the power befitting of the first baseman the Astros thought they were getting before the 2025 season.

The mustache is gone now, but he’s still raking, and I can only imagine the kids movie conversation between hitting coach Victor Rodriguez and Walker:

“But… but… I didn’t have my magic mustache!”

“You never needed it, Christian! The good people at Norelco Mustache and Beard Trimmers and I just made that up! The power has been in you all along.”

It’s true. It’s always been there. It was there last year too, it just didn’t show up until July.

His 2026 has been great, making him a strong All-Star candidate. This great 2026 is pretty much identical to his 2025 second half.

#5 – Peter Lambert Becomes a Consistent Rotation Piece… Nice

He might have slowed down a little, but whatever expectations you had of Peter Lambert coming into this season, the San Dimas high school product has exceeded them already.

He’s not going to win any award, but he’s consistently been able to go out every 5th game and knock out 5 or 6 innings allowing 3 runs or less. Coming from someone who was probably 10th in the depth chart for starting pitchers, that’s fantastic; he’s turned into a reliable back of the rotation piece.

#6. Cam Smith and Brice Matthews are Elite Outfielders… Nice

Fans are divided on whether Cam Smith’s and Brice Matthews’ abilities at the plate are up to snuff (I’m on record as saying Cam’s been doing fine, and the jury is still out on Brice).

What can’t be denied is their defense. Both brought up in the system as infielders, Cam made the transition at the major league level to outfielder last year and Brice Matthews was tasked with that conversion this year.

Defensively, it’s gone about as well as you could want.

Brice Matthews in 280 innings of outfield work, which is about half the innings of an outfield regular, has 3 OAA and 3 DRS, both number rank top 25 in the major among outfielders. Last night he recorded his first outfield assist in a beautiful throw home from left that saved the game in extra innings.

Up until the tail end of the 2025 Sugar Land season, Brice had never played an inning of outfield in his college or minor league career. He already ranks among the best at it.

Cam Smith played third base almost exclusively in college and his limited time in the minors, before he opened the 2025 MLB season as a right fielder. Now, he’s one of the best right fielders in the game.

A Gold Glove is within Cam Smith’s reach this season.

#6.9: The Astros Picked the Right Year to Suck… Nice (Kind Of)

This isn’t a full nice thing, just 90% of one, because sometimes it doesn’t feel that nice. The Astros are 31-37, 6 games below .500, but the rest of the AL West has been courteous enough to not to build up any appreciable division lead, so the Astros are only 4.5 games out of the division.

Here’s how many games behind the Astros would be in each of MLB’s 6 divisions:

They’re also now just 2.5 games out from an AL Wild Card spot. Ordinarily, we’d be talking about meaningless games and how to approach the trade deadline as sellers. But the AL, particularly the AL West, keeps letting the Astros hang around. It’s the gift of letting Astros fans continue to watch the Astros play meaningful games.

The flip side of that, which is why this isn’t a full nice thing, is it’s also the “gift” of letting Astros fans continue to watch the Astros lose meaningful games. A lot more of us might be more checked out if the division weren’t still in reach. (And not end evenings exclaiming, “I stayed up for that?!”)

Astros @ Angels Game Information and Gamethread Details

Kai-Wei Teng, 3-4 on the season in 6 starts and 13 relief appearances, starts for the Astros. I’m still not sure where Kai Wei Teng’s best suited for: rotation or bullpen. He was great in the bullpen, but he’s made the transition to the rotation well. He still has problems with the third time through the order, which limits his effectiveness as a starter if he can’t go deep into games, but he used to have those same problems with the second time through the order, so the fact that’s it’s now the third time through is an improvement.

He carries a 3.06 ERA into the game, with a 1.17 WHIP, 8.4 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9. His last start, he was great until he wasn’t. Through 5 innings he allowed just 1 run, but the third time through the order came up in the 6th inning, and the Pirates tagged him for 4 more runs, 3 of them earned.

Right-handed rookie Walbert Urena is pitching for the Angels. He’s had a solid rookie campaign so far, posting a 3-4 record in 9 starts and 2 relief appearances, with just a 2.68 ERA. His WHIP on the season is 1.331, with a 5.0 BB/9 and 8.6 K/9, so like Teng he’s had to work around a number of walks.

This post will be updated with starting lineups as they are made available.

The game will be broadcast at 8:38 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 amazing 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 from  @astros on X,  Source Link (cropped).