I typically don’t get too worked up about missed calls. Sure, every once in a while, a missed call gets under my skin a bit. Doesn’t it for everyone? But this missed ball four during Christian Walker’s plate appearance in the ninth inning may have cost the Astros the game.
I wasn’t pleased and Walker certainly didn’t look happy. I mean, he did try to challenge it, only for the home plate umpire, Brennan Miller, to rule that Walker waited too long to tap his helmet to signal a challenge. I understand his frustration. Of course, if this call was correctly made as ball four, there isn’t a guarantee that the same sequence of events would unfold — Taylor Trammell’s two-run home run and Cam Smith’s solo home run — to tie the score. The end result still stings all the same, though.
Home runs were Houston’s downfall against Minnesota. Peter Lambert didn’t necessarily pitch poorly, allowing four earned runs in 5.2 innings, but he wasn’t great either. Velocity was down compared to his season averages. Of the 18 batted ball events, 8 were classified as hard contact. Allowing three home runs, however, can only lead to some hurt. Nate Pearson also allowed a run in the seventh, which didn’t help matters. But Miguel Ullola made his Major League debut and looked, dare I say, electric.
The parallels to Bryan Abreu earlier in his career are similar to Ullola. For one, Abreu made his initial ascent up the organizational ladder with some experience as a starting pitcher, like Ullola, amid notable control issues. They both primarily throw four-seam fastballs that can thrive atop the zone and sliders. Like Abreu, the odds feel high that Ullola’s skillset is best served as a reliever. Even pitchers that are similar are never exactly the same, and Ullola isn’t a guarantee for success at the moment. But you can understand why Ullola, with his stuff, is a potential replacement for Abreu, with the latter’s free agency approaching after the season.
For much of the game, the Astros’ lineup couldn’t generate anything meaningful when it mattered. Other than Smith’s solo home run in the fifth inning, they didn’t have an answer for Zebby Matthews, who struck out seven across seven innings. But Houston started to show some life in the ninth inning against Travis Adams and Yoendrys Gómez, scoring three runs before falling short at the end. In fact, Smith had his third career multi-homer game and the first of the 2026 season.
Unfortunately, the AL West-leading Rangers and second-place Mariners both won, keeping the 42-45 Astros two and one games behind in the standings. And Jeremy Peña is going back on the IL with a left calf strain.
Oh, joy. At least it isn’t forecast to be a long absence this time around… hopefully.
Feature photo from Astros on X
They also said Allen’s IL stint would be the minimum 10 days. He was out for 3 weeks.
Is this first time this season that the Astros, or Joe in this case, used “discomfort” when describing an injury? Because I’m having flashbacks…
They did a few weeks ago with Allen
You guys have to be tired too. We kept Cintron and Snitker for way too long. How about the medical staff in recovering from injuries? Now, the strength training personnel….calf, abductors, hamstrings, quads, oblique…these guys are young athletes playing a non-contact, no particularly physically demanding sport. Those injuries come from the weight room. Who is in charge in this team?
To finish my rant. We make 4-5+ ERA pitchers look like Cy Young award candidates and then we feast on the relieve pitchers. Aren’t we supposed to have a whole department of nerds processing data? Again, we have good players in a bad team. Who is in charge? Get rid of him.
I think the umpire waived off CW’s challenge because he looked to the dugout first. Funny how this restriction is specifically punishing toward a rhb of the home team who is taking a step toward 1st on a perceived BB.
Who do I blame? Obviously the plate ump for missing the original call. But honestly all players need to be coached well enough in those instances to know exactly how many challenges remain and the leverage instances in which to use them. CW clearly didn’t have challenge on his mind at all until looking at his dugout. Coaching needs to be better.
This is exactly correct. This is a teaching moment. Forget the loss for a minute. If you wanted to win this one, there were 8 other innings not to be dog shit. But teachable moments like checking the call to protect your AB, and not taking calls for granted anymore. It’s not funny, and it’s not a game. Take this shit more serious, and change the mentality on perceived calls, and how you react. It just protects you.
looking back at walker’s challenge, he did tap his helmet within the 2 seconds of the ump making the call, which is the unofficial time window to do it, but i get why the ump said no. he brings up his hand towards his heel but he hesitates before tapping and it does look like hes making eye contact with somewhere before he commits to tapping his helmet, and its supposed to be an immediate reaction.
also walker’s not new to this, he challenges the most of anyone besides cam and altuve. he definitely should have been more vigilant to challenge on a full count in the 9th.
I do believe the yelling from the dugout probably caused Walker to hesitate. Should have been a fair and easy call for the ump to ignore the dugout look and award the base. I wouldn’t be shocked if we see similar situations in post season play when emotions are high.
Was the bench signaling Walker? Who knows? But if that is the basis (rather than the 2 second rule) for the ump’s ruling, I would like to see umps have more evidence than just speculation. I think it’s also possible that Walker is a little gun-shy after losing several challenges over the last few games. If he appears tentative in touching his head, it may be because he is afraid he will get in trouble with the bench. On the other hand, I think the players need to understand that almost all challenges in the 9th inning are acceptable.
We are only two seasons in with an “injury prone” Pena. But we are looking at a fun rookie season, two roughly average seasons, and two injury ridden seasons with all star or close to all star level play.
I do wonder if he would have been better off taking the payday instead of betting on himself. I’m not sure he’s a $200MM players, especially in a world with a potential cap.
He most certainly is not a $200 million player. Dansby Swansby him if he thinks otherwise