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One game does not solve all problems, but …

Entering Monday night, though it was certainly not a must-win for the 0-4 Astros, it felt like the team needed to show they were ignoring the bad play and the bad luck of the Yankee sweep.

While this game does not solve all the problems that have reared their heads in the first four games of the season, it would be tough to find another game that was good news for so many participants and critical areas of a team.

  • GM Dana Brown had come under fire for a seeming lack of attention to the biggest hole in the team this off-season. Kendall Graveman, Hector Neris, Phil Maton, and Ryne Stanek are all gone from a strength of the 2023 team, bullpen depth, and only Josh Hader has been added to fill that glaring gap. But Monday night, he was mentioned a number of times as the person who looked at 29-year-old Relief Pitcher Ronel Blanco in Spring Training of 2023 and said, No – this guy has starter stuff and needs to work on a third pitch to go with his fastball and slider. One year onward and Blanco and his newly developed change-up held the Blue Jays to 2 walks and no hits.
  • Manager Joe Espada was already being grumbled about for a few of his decisions (as every manager is questioned) but had started off getting swept in a four-game series for the first time in Astros history since the Big Red Machine swept them in 1978. He had to be happy to be the first manager to experience his first career win on the good end of a no hitter.
  • The starting pitching had been the best part of a poor start to the season, though both Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown, failed to get through 5 innings in the Yankee series. Ronel Blanco in his eighth career start answered the bell and flew past his 6 inning longest big league outing to a complete game no-no. Just amazing really.
  • The bullpen started the season in a hole with key cog, Bryan Abreu on suspension for the first two games. They dug themselves further in the hole with a lot of use for the four Yankee games. With Abreu and Hader not available Monday night, a lot of people were questioning how the team was going to bridge from what might be a short start by Blanco to Ryan Pressly at the back of the bullpen. Blanco, who is only on the team because of the many injuries (Justin Verlander, Jose Urquidy, Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia) to the base rotation, was brilliant and gave the bullpen a rest except for some ninth inning – just in case – warmups.
  • The hitting had been a bit inconsistent in the Yankee season, and, pardon the word – un-clutch. After hitting 2 homers in the first four games of the season, the team hit three in the first two innings of Monday’s game. For the game, they launched 5 home runs total, including 2 each by Yainer Diaz and Kyle Tucker.
  • There was one other homer, and that sound you heard when Jeremy Pena launched one in the second inning had to be his sigh of relief after breaking a drought that strung back through the postseason of 2023 all the way back to July 5 of last year.
  • And Jose Abreu, who had an ofer going since the beginning of the season, swatted one the other way for a single. Not too impressive of a hit, but we will take anything at this point. And he made a decent play on a grounder in the 9th, which was no gimme after he dropped a throw he should have caught in the first inning.

This game, though not nearly as critical, reminded me of Game 4 of the 2022 World Series. The Phillies had flattened the Astros 7-0 with a 5 home run assault on McCullers for a 2-1 lead in the series. Another loss and the Astros would have had to win three in a row to salvage the crown. (Yes, they did win three in a row, but that is another story). Cristian Javier swooped in and led a combo no-hitter for a Game 4 momentum changer, and the Astros never looked back.

How will we look back on this game a month or two from now? A bright glimmer of a game in an otherwise disappointing season? A critical turnaround for a team that needed a shot in the arm?  The discovery of another bargain basement arm from the International market?

We shall see.

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20 responses to “One game does not solve all problems, but …”

  1. Like many of us I tend to get caught up in the most current stretch of games and overreact. Losing 4 to the Yankees stinks for multiple reasons, but keep in mind last September we went 0-3 and 1-2 in two series against the Royals! Sometimes it’s bad luck that another team was just playing well and other times teams beat themselves. With 157 more games the key is to pick up a few extra wins against the non-contenders and then play up to expectation against the rest of the league and this sweep won’t matter. Looking ahead, picking up another win against Toronto before going into four games at Arlington seems important to have us back on track though.

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  3. To echo Sarge. Terrible baserunning. McCormick running right into the Springer assist considering he could see it in front of him; Diaz muffing the tag up attempt; Altuve running into a slow grounder; Altuve getting thrown out at third; and Meyers. Meyers.

    What a rough way to give it back. Our closer is now 0-2.

    Pena does not look crisp defensively. He is making some loose throws that don’t have much pepper.

    It’s easy to find the criticisms in that flat offensive performance. 6 games in still waiting on some guys that you know will hit to hit.

    Game has to go a long ways for Framber’s headspace though.

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    • Wasn’t there a recent story about how the team was going to concentrate on baserunning basics in ST? It seems that experiment was a failure……

      There were planty of chances to win that game in the 7th and 8th innings. Bregman wasn’t the ony one who choked at the plate today. Though he did do it twice.

      It’s a shame for Framber. He pitched a pretty good game with only a couple goofs. Though I am really liking his new haircut!

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  4. Observation: The 2024 Astros are not likely to win many one run games.

    No lead is going to ever feel safe with this bullpen.

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  6. Another tough night at the office.

    Diaz was indecisive. Instead of tagging, he had judged a ball glancing off the wall that would have scored him. Unfortunately the ball did not glance off the wall. It got caught. I can’t condemn him for that one. At least he did not get thrown out and remained in scoring position.

    If Springer does not make an excellent play on the Chas ball in right center, running away from the play and then making a very good throw against his body, Chas is safe. I have no problem with that one. I think that’s good aggressive base running in that situation.

    Our future Hall of Famer getting picked off of third is a head shaker. But he’s done that stuff throughout his career in key situations. It was terrible. That’s classic Jose Altuve. But getting hit by that soft ground ball off Bregman’s bat might have been worse. It looked like he tried to run into the ball!

    Jake. As long as Jake plays the game, he probably won’t fall down again trying to steal second base. But for all his speed, Jake is not a base stealer. He’s only got 10 swipes in MLB play, and has been caught four times. He was 51 and 26 in the minors. Those are bad numbers. I just don’t think stealing things is in his comfort zone. Maybe that explains how a guy can fall down like that.  

    I am again encouraged though. Framber is the guy that I’ve been most concerned about. He’s perhaps the most important guy we’ve got right now. He looked like a different pitcher on the mound last night. Is Victor his new catcher? If that’s the way it works out, I could care less. Give me results.

    I was not impressed by Hader going to his cheat sheet before giving up the two run shot to Schneider. That kid does hit homers. I hope Hader’s preparation is worthy of his salary.

    Got to keep battling through all of this crappy baseball. It will even out. Maybe not in April though. But we will get back into playing all components of good baseball at the same time. 

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  7. In order to remain balanced in my reporting, I must note that Joey Loperfido provided his home fans with a double sombrero, going 0-6 last night with 6 K’s in the Space Cowboys home opener.

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  8. Thoughts

    • Last season after 6 games pitched, our closer Ryan Pressly had an 8.44 ERA, 2 losses and 0 saves. He didn’t have his first save until April 21. Just saying.
    • How, how, how can Altuve pull that stupid base running deal off 3B with Yainer Diaz at the plate? Yainer is almost a coin flip at the plate hitting .476 BA right now.
    • You can’t have a guy on third with no out (7th inning) and a guy on third with one out (8th inning) and not score either time
    • I’m more mad at Hader for the walk to Turner than the home run. Can’t be afraid of Turner just because he was 3 for 3
    • Framber was terrific last night – zero walks and lots of ground balls – the best he has looked in a very long time
    • I know that Brown promised Jake the CF job, but I sure would rather see Dubon out there 5 days a week at least
    • Well our weak middle relievers will be well rested now. But that won’t make them good pitchers.
    • Can you contact Yordan’s home planet and tell them we need him back – his doppleganger is not doing a good imitation
    • Does consistently starting off every season like Martin Maldonado reduce Alex Bregman’s asking price?

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    • Well Dan, you asked.

      On July 18 of 2023, Bregman was sitting on a .238 BA, .334 OBP, .396 SLG and a .718 OPS. Sure he finished strong, but his struggles over the first 92 games of the season really hurt the club. He did not step up when Yordan and Altuve were out. He made roughly 17.5 million during those first 92 games. As the boss, I’d be frustrated paying that kind of money for that kind of performance. Heck, I was frustrated just watching him and I didn’t have to pay him anything. Do we have to go through this slow start business once again?

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    • Not much of a risk here either but another long shot. At least this guy tends to throw strikes. He’d be quite a story if successful. 11 minor league seasons under his belt.

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  13. The MLB rats are at it again. Astros/Rangers featured on Apple TV tonight. That’s both Friday nights so far early in the season that I can’t watch the Astros, even with my full season MLB TV plan. Apple wants 120.00 more per year. More and more, we’re paying twice for good match ups. I guess it’s the TV version of dynamic pricing. We’re getting closer to pay TV once the playoffs start. 

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    • This really is the Astros fault. Rivalries with the Yankees and Rangers just mean so much right now. If you spend just 5 minutes on a Yankees fan site you can’t scroll 3 comments down without them talking about Houston. It just makes these games feel special.

      At least it shows the games have meaning on a national stage, even if MLB is kind of selling you a loaded package. They blacked out the Fox game on Sunday, and while I do have Apple TV because its great outside of MLB I don’t have cable (or local channels). If its not streaming I probably don’t have it.

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