Trivia Question: Who is Lucas Spence?
Answer: Just maybe the guy who saved the Astros’ 2026 season.
A little background.
Spence was so under the radar at Southern Illinois University that he went undrafted in the 2024 draft. But the Astros signed him as a free agent, and he surprised everyone, climbing fast in the Astros system.
He made AAA Sugar Land in June 2026 and debuted in Houston for a few games on July 17. His early stint was unremarkable, hitting only .162.
He was sent back down to the Space Cowboys, and when their season ended, so did Spence’s. Or so it seemed. But center fielder Daulton Vasho went down. And then Brice Mathews. The Astros are so thin in depth at outfield that they had to dig into the bottom of the barrel for replacements. So back came Spence.
Tonight, his three home runs accounted for 5/7s of the Astros’ runs in a critical 7 to 5 win. No Spence, no win, in a game the Astros desperately needed to win to stay in the playoff hunt.
Go Space Cowboys
And then there’s Space Cowboy Miguel Ullola. Normally a one-inning reliever, but with the early exit of tonight’s starter and the exhaustion of almost the entire pitching staff, tonight the erratic rookie was called upon to keep the A’s from expanding their lead for three innings.
Mission accomplished, with aplomb.
Thanks to Spence, the Astros jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning. It was Spence’s first career home run, hit 429 feet on a low changeup.
However, Peter Lambert, after shutting down the A’s for 2.2 innings while striking out six, gave up back-to-back home runs to Jeff McNeil and Zack Gelof, giving the Athletics a 4-3 lead. Another A’s single later, and Lambert was lifted for Bryan King, who put out the fire and held the A’s in the fourth.
And then came Ullola. He mowed down the A’s from innings five through seven, allowing only one baserunner while striking out three.
He was the winning pitcher thanks to a sixth-inning solo homer by Issac Paredes and a seventh-inning, go-ahead shot by…who else… Spence, giving the Astros a 5-4 lead.
In the eighth inning, Christian Walker’s solo homer gave the Astros an insurance run, but Gelof took it back with his second homer of the game in the A’s eighth off Bennett Sousa.
A one-run lead in homer-friendly Sacramento, considering the beleaguered state of the Astros’ bullpen, is not very secure. So let us not minimize Spence’s third home run, which gave closer Bryan Abreu just a little comfort as he finished off the A’s with a double play in the ninth.
The Astros remained tied for first place in the AL West with the Rangers and hold the tiebreaker. A loss tonight would have been a backbreaker with only three games remaining. The Astros and Rangers must win the division to make the playoffs, as the three Wild Card berths have already been clinched.
Maybe he had little choice, but kudos to Joe Espada for making the unconventional move to keep Ullola in for three innings. Ullola had the hot hand, but a third inning was risky. However, it worked, and there weren’t many other trustworthy alternatives.
Tonight’s losing pitcher was Sacramento reliever Blewett.
See ya tomorrow. It’s Hunter Brown.
Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link.
With aplomb!
This game makes me angry. Dusty for three years and Espada for three more years denied fair chances to our young players. Two dogmas from Dusty and his copy cat Espada. “The lineup belongs to the field manager” and “Young players have to pay their dues.”
Results? An aging, expensive, and misconstructed team.
And the FO? Dedicated at firing extraordinary GMs so they could play GM.
Ullola has looked pretty good this season. At least results wise. There has probably been some luck involved but he hasn’t been walking many batters.
Ullola has been a nice surprise out of the bullpen this season. His Stuff+ numbers so far are very good: Stuff 106 Location100 Pitching+110. I was skeptical of Ullola heading into this season because of his walk numbers. But he has really improved his control when he moved from starter to reliever. If he throws strikes and gets ahead of batters, he can be very good. His fastball spin rate (2538) is very good and reminescent of Javier in his early years.