Tonight marks the final game for the Astros in August, who come in 13-13 on the month. A win tonight would mark the 4th consecutive month that the Astros have posted a winning record. Since May 15, The Astros have actually posted the 3rd most wins in the AL behind the Rays and Red Sox, and the 8th most in the majors. It doesn’t feel like it, because the team keeps struggling to get to and stay above .500, but they’ve been fighting to climb out of a horrible April.
Joe Espada’s teams don’t seem to do well in April. Maybe they need to use an “opener” for manager the first month of the season and then call for Joe in May.
Tomorrow is September, and the Astros’ roster expands from 26 to 28 players, as they are allowed to call up 2 more players, a pitcher and a position player. I went over the options for pitcher in yesterday’s preview.
Today, we’ll look at the options for position player call-ups.
September Call-Up Options: Position Players
Jake Meyers – This is probably the most likely callup. Meyers started the season as the everyday center fielder, but didn’t perform to his 2025 standard, got hurt, came back and his play was still lacking. The Astros outfield production was so dismal, they couldn’t afford to keep throwing Meyers out there if he wasn’t hitting, and ultimately the fact that 2025 Jake Meyers didn’t show up in 2026 led to the team needing to trade for Daulton Varsho.
Now with a 14th position player spot, they may have room for Meyers again. The Astros seem set with Christian Vazquez and Yainer Diaz as their catcher tandem, and feel comfortable with Nick Allen as their utility infielder. Varsho, Taylor Trammell and Lamont Wade Jr., are their left-handed outfield bats. Their right-handed hitting outfielders are currently just Cam Smith and Nelson Velazquez. Velasquez has yet to get a hit as an Astro, and yesterday they used him as a defensive replacement in left field. Sure, he’s better than Yordan Alvarez defensively, but defense is hardly Velazquez’ strong suit. Bringing up Meyers gives Espada a better late inning defensive replacement option.
Meyers has also been hitting better as of late in AAA. In his last 9 games, Jake has gone 10 for 36 with 3 doubles and a triple.
Left-handed options like Zach Cole, Joey Loperfido and Lucas Spence seem less likely with 3 lefty outfielders already on the roster. Zach Dezenzo is a righty bat, but Jake brings more defensive upside and big league experience. Raynel Delgado is a lefty bat, but with limited offensive upside, and defensively, his role would be redundant with Nick Allen around.
Luis Robert, Jr. – He’s not on the team, but if the Astros place a waiver claim in for him, perhaps he could be. Robert had a .716 OPS entering yesterday and is a right-handed outfielder as well with serviceable defense. He’s still only 29. If the Astros were to get him, they could actually put both Robert and Meyers on the big league team, as Velazquez would be wholly unnecessary and could be designated for assignment (again).
Carlos Correa – Okay, Correa’s not ready, but he’s expected to be ready sometime in September. When he is, he definitely will be on the 28 man roster. I can’t imagine he’ll be asked to field coming back from injury, but Correa’s 4.3 Off still ranks 4th on the team even though he’s only played in 32 games. Correa would likely serve as a DH, pushing Yordan to left field, or as a pinch hitter; his bat is too valuable to not use.
The AL West Race
Following a 4-2 road trip against the New York Yankees and Mets, the Astros’ position in the division has never been better, with a 2 game lead over the Rangers and 5 games over the Mariners after 137 games.
The Fangraphs Playoff odds now have the Astros with a 63.8% chance to take the division.
Stay your excitement though, this is a very similar position to where the 2025 Astros were after 137 games: 2 games ahead of the Mariners and 4.5 games ahead of Texas, and a month later the season ended with the Astros on the outside looking in.
White Sox @ Astros Game Information and Gamethread Details
The Astros begin an important 4 game series against the White Sox tonight. With 25 games to go, the 69-68 Astros are clinging to a 2 game lead over the 67-70 Rangers. The Rangers start a series against the .387 win percentage Athletics, so the Houston is going to need to continue accumulating wins to stay ahead of Texas.
The Astros, while trying to fend off the Rangers and Mariners for the AL West division, are also simultaneously trying to chase down the AL Central leading White Sox for the AL #2 seed. Currently the White Sox are 3.5 games ahead of the Astros, but a sweep could let the Astros overtake Chicago.
Also at stake is the tiebreaker with the White Sox. Currently, the Astros lead the series 2-1, but in order to have the tiebreaker against the White Sox, the Astros will need to take 2 of the next 4 games and finish 4-3 against them on the season.
Peter Lambert stuck out another 5+ IP start last time out against the Yankees with 2 ER. The innings load for the season is starting to wear on Lambert, but Houston still need to lean on him. If they get another 5+ IP, 2 ER start from Lambert again today, I think they’ll take it.
Lambert is 8-7 on the season with a 3.66 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 8.8 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9.
The White Sox start Anthony Kay, a 31 year old left handed pitcher who spent 2019-2023 as reliever for the Jays, Cubs and Mets, before going to Japan for 2 years. This is his first year as a starting pitcher in MLB, and he’s 9-6 in 27 games, 25 starts, with a 4.09 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. He has a 7.4 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 and of note, leads the majors with 22 HBP. So watch out, Isaac Paredes, who’s 4th in the AL in getting hit with 17 HBP.
Kay’s last time out, Texas hit him pretty well, touching him for 4 ER in 4.2 IP on 6 hits (2 home runs), 2 walks and a HBP. Kay struck out 4.
The game will be broadcast at 7:10 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.
This post will be updated with starting lineup as they are made available.
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Hard to believe. (WAR) Varsho (0.1), Trammell(-0.5), Wade(0.0), Velazquez(-0.5), and Delgado(-0.5). The Astros’ players development program is a shame.
Another lefty facing the Astros’ bats. Will we see Velasquez? I wouldn’t call Kay a real soft-tossing lefty, given that his average velocity is 95. But the similarities to past poor offensive performances are close enough.
Velasquez is in the lineup vs. the LHB. But Nick Allen replaces Altuve.
Altuve certainly could use a breather but I was hoping it would be on the road. He’s 6 hits away from 2500 and it’d be nicer if he heard cheers instead of boos when it happened. He probably still will.