Was it a soccer score or a baseball score?
Who cares. Thanks to a shutdown pitching performance and two solo homers by people not named Alvarez, the Astros took the series against the AL’s best team, beating the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-0.
The Astros got all they would need from this one swing. It was Christian Walker’s 20th homer, his fifth straight season with 20 or more.
But for good measure, Isaac Paredes added this meager insurance run with a mighty blast to deep left-center.
Peter Lambert was the winning pitcher, going 5.2 innings, allowing only three hits and one walk, while striking out six. The familiar finishers, Steven Okert, Bryan King, and Josh Hader, completed the shutout, allowing only two baserunners between them.
Rays starter Mason Englert also lasted 5.2 innings, probably more than expected, allowing five of the Astros’ six hits. Unfortunately for him, two of them cleared the fences.
The Astros go to Washington to take on the Nationals tomorrow.
Lambert is proving he can readjust quickly from a bad start. Coming back today in a must-win playoff style game, Lambert did setting himself apart in the rotation.
This is the best grade against LHH I can ever recall seeing from an Astros starter
Well, he is the most consistent starter we have.
I still think about before his first start, I asked the Purple Row ME if she had a scouting report on Lambert from his years in Colorado. She texted back: “he went to San Dimas High school like bill and ted and he looked like two small children stacked on top of each other.” And that was it. 🤣
Lambert is pitching better now than at any time in his unimpressive career.
Rangers lost, Mariners won, A’s lost.
I would 100% take being the 2005 Astros
https://www.mlb.com/news/christian-walker-isaac-paredes-homer-in-astros-win
That would be an insane comparison. Give it to me.
Yeah. Oswald, Clemens, Pettite, Lidge. Who needs offense.
Berkman vs. Alvarez, Ensberg vs. Walker, Altuve vs. Biggio. Much similarity in the outfield, I would take Pena over Everett, I guess. Harder to make comparisons in the starting rotation, though.
I just meant that if you offered me a wild card berth, a league pennant, but a World Series sweep loss for this 2026 team, I’d take the deal.
I’d 100% accept that on one condition: The WS sweep loss may not occur vs the Dodgers.
Earlier in the season, Espada said Lambert pitches with a lot of fire. Something we don’t really notice as much on the mound, but apparently his competitive fire shows up when he goes to the bench. It’s nice to know. That can be either a positive or negative–people react differently to emotional reactions–but in his case, it may be something that helps him.
It seems to me like Lambert was never developed properly (not a surprise given who drafted him) and has a real opportunity now. It’s true I don’t see much emotion on the mound but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that he is pretty intense, now that he has been pitching like the guy he “could’ve been” earlier in his career.