Thanks to Tatsuya Imai failing to escape the first inning, in a game where the Astros led 9-0 before he even threw a single pitch, Joe Espada was forced to use his bullpen Friday evening. That’s bad enough. It also didn’t help matters that he used plenty of his leverage relievers.
Only Bryan Abreu and Alimber Santa didn’t throw a pitch in Friday’s game against the Royals. Enyel De Los Santos, in the process of allowing three earned runs, looked spent. Steven Okert, AJ Blubaugh, and Nate Pearson all faced at least seven hitters across two innings, with Okert facing nine and picking up seven outs. The real kicker was using Bryan King and Josh Hader in a game when you once led, again, 9-0. On brand for this season, I guess.
Someone might want to tell Mike Burrows that he has a long runway for today’s start in Kansas City, regardless of the results. Might I encourage him to avoid throwing meatballs with his four-seam to left-handed hitters?
Astros @ Royals Game Information and Gamethread Details
We all know by now that Burrows’s four-seam isn’t a good pitch. Although he’s throwing it less than he did with the Pirates last season, it’s getting hammered when he does throw it. At last check, I believe he’s allowed 11 home runs when throwing his four-seam, among the top, if not the highest total in baseball. So, yeah, not good.
The game will be broadcast at 6:10 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 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 .
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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
I’m a long way from Kansas City, so I hate to speculate on weather. But I suspect there is a good pretty good chance for precipitation. Around 80% chance of rain fall (1-2 inches) in late afternoon through evening. It’s possible we will see the game started but suspended after an hour or so for rain. Anyone living in the KC area probably has better information than me.
Burrows and 4 other pitchers are tied for second (17 HR) behind Jameson Taillon (20 HR). Burrows with 12 HRs vs. LHB is tied for 2d (with Taillon) behind Zach Littell with 13 HR.
The one optimistic thing is that Burrows generally pitches more deeply into games (5th, 6th, or 7th inning) than other Astros’ starters.