Aren’t the Astros fortunate that Peter Lambert re-signed with the club following his release in late March?
You can make the argument that Spencer Arrighetti and Lambert are the two pitchers most responsible for halting the freefall that the Astros experienced in April. For as much as I avoid referencing pitcher wins, it is worth noting that the duo is 12-6 in 21 starts this season before Wednesday, with a 3.00 ERA and 3.85 FIP. While this team is still 35-41 with a -41 run differential, it would be worse without them. They stabilized a rotation without Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier. Tatsuya Imai and Mike Burrows, the two big offseason acquisitions, have been way more bad than good. A scary thought, isn’t it?
For Wednesday, the Tigers simply didn’t have an answer for Lambert. While the right-hander doesn’t possess overpowering velocity, and he doesn’t generate a lot of whiffs, Lambert mixed his entire pitch arsenal quite well. He also managed to avoid hard contact with an average exit velocity of 89.4 mph. Even the only run he gave up was a Crawford Boxes special to Kerry Carpenter, with only a .190 expected batting average.
With how Lambert was pitching, the Astros didn’t need to provide too much support to win. Of course, it is still possible to lose 1-0 even when your pitcher is dealing, so a crooked number in that run column would be preferred. While there wasn’t much happening in terms of hitting the ball within the first half of the game, Houston was able to capitalize just enough. First, it was Jeremy Peña’s solo home run in the third inning against Casey Mize to provide a 1-0 lead with his own Crawford Boxes special, although it was of better quality than Carpenter’s eventual dinger.
Following a scoreless fourth inning, the Astros were able to extend their lead to three runs with RBI doubles from Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes. A fourth would be added to the ledger with Peña’s RBI single in the sixth to make it a 4-0 game.
Detroit would eventually answer with two runs of its own, with Carpenter and Kevin McGonigle hitting solo home runs. McGonigle’s home run even had a lower expected batting average of .070. Although Lambert and Josh Hader each allowed a run, in any other park this game would’ve ended in a shutout.
Regardless, the Astros won 4-2. They’ve now won back-to-back series for only the second time this season, if my reading of Baseball-Reference hasn’t failed me. Now 35-41 on the season, trailing the Mariners by four games in the division and only 2.5 games for the last AL Wild Card spot. This team, even with Hunter Brown back in the mix, still has plenty of issues. But the past two series provide a blueprint and hope about how the Astros can make this season interesting again.
Feature photo from Astros on X
Lambert exhibited improved control in this game. Walks were a notable weakness, coming into this game. (He averages almost 4 BB/9, but he had zero walks today.)
second game in a row without walks! 💪
It’s amazing how much lower stress the outings are from our starters when they aren’t giving out free passes all the time.
Even the leadoff baserunners this game weren’t that bad because there wasn’t the sense that a BB would immediately follow.
For the nth time. The Astros need a long string of hits and walks to score runs. That is not going to work against good pitching. Furthermore, the lineup is constructed with that string of hits in mind that would generate enough runs to win. Now, we are defending better and hitting better, but managing is a weakness (Easy to fix). Let’s see if Burrows Imai, and Teng can turn into Lamberts.