The Astros have been struggling on the offensive side of the game for quite a while, but this has morphed into a full free fall, where after Tuesday’s game they had been shut out in 4 of the last 5 games, including the last 3 games straight. Even with an extra inning thrown in on Tuesday they still could not score and had not scored in their last 28 innings.
In the month of August, the Astros were ranking as follows in the AL in main offensive categories after Tuesday’s games – .230 BA (10th) / .296 OBP (11th) / .658 OPS (12th) / 3.38 Runs/game (T-14th and last) / 16 HRs (13th).
This is no surprise. The Astros are not showing power and not scoring runs. Period.
There are a number of culprits here, but for the recent crash, there are a few that stand out for lack of offense during the recent time period.
Note – due to technical difficulties at my favorite baseball stat web site – baseballreference.com – I can only get the following stats thru Monday’s games. But let’s just say Tuesday and so far Wednesday have not been kinder to these folks.
The last 33 games, Cam has put up – 116 ABs / .155 BA/ .233 OBP/ .431 OPS/ 7 runs / 0 HRs/ 9 RBIS since July 5. Along with being in a crash and burn mode, since topping out at .292 BA/ .357 OBP/ .801 OPS back in early July, it has been 41 games since his last home run.
Again, as has been stated many times, Cam has minimal professional experience before this season as he was drafted and spent the last portion of 2024 at a few levels, none higher than AA. He has also never played near this many games in his career. And let’s face it, after having a solid season through June, the other teams have a book on him and he has not yet adjusted to that fact.
Last 13 games / 49 ABs/ .204 BA/ .264 OBP/ .672 OPS/ 4 runs/ 2 HRs/ 5 HRs
Pena is the one who has the biggest excuse for failure as he is trying to find his way back after missing significant time with a broken rib. He was one of the best leadoff men in the game when he went down and they really need him to find his footing again.
16 games / 55 ABs/ .164 BA/ .220 OBP/ .475 OPS / 6 runs / 0 HRs/ 1 RBIs
Those are Sanchez’s numbers since being traded to the Astros at the deadline. That includes his current 0 for 25 batting slump. His defense has been strong, but his hitting is making us long for Cooper Hummel…OK, maybe not quite.
20 games / 56 RBIs/ .196 BA/ .297 OBP/ .529 OPS/ 5 runs/ 0 HRs/ 1 RBIs
Along with not hitting for average, Victor’s last home run was 26 games ago.
Last 18 games / 44 ABs/ .136 BA / .240 OBP/ .467 OPS/ 2 R/ 1 HR/ 3 RBIs
This is enough to make you wonder why you are pinch hitting him for Chas McCormick, lefty-righty be damned.
18 games / 50 ABs/ .180 BA/ .240 OBP/ .461 OPS/ 3 runs/ 0 HRs/ 7 RBIs
This is his whole career to date and it is not impressing anyone so far.
Beyond those players, even some of the hitters who have been productive the second half of the season have slumped in run production.
- Christian Walker has not scored or driven in a run in his last 7 games.
- Jose Altuve has a solo home run, but beyond that only one other run scored and no RBIs in the last 9 games.
- Yainer Diaz has a single run scored and no RBIs in his last 6 games.
- Carlos Correa has a single run scored and one RBI in his last 7 games.
Even as I am typing this post – the drought ends as Mauricio Dubon hits a two-run homer, but not until the Astros are down 7-0. The Astros would be closer, but they left two guys on third with one out (so far) today.
Will the Astros break out of this? Man, I sure hope so and I sure hope they are not waiting for Yordan Alvarez to break them out of this, but it sure feels like that is what they are doing.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
23 responses to “Astros’ offensive malaise”
I recall, back in 1979, the Astros had a good lead in the standings and Tom Seaver stated that the Astros would drop, from the lead, like a lead balloon. Well, they have been dropping like a lead balloon once again.
I am sure a couple of management type seats, in the Astros’ circle, are getting very hot about now.
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Well the Astros got wallop again (7-2). But, the Mariners got it worse (11-2). Hmm.
And, yes, Dan, Charlie Morton had a QS to move to 2-2 since going to Detroit. Said it then, and I’ll say it again now: Not sure why the Astros didn’t pursue him at the deadline.
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Yeah Chip, Charlie has had three good starts with the Tigers, all 6 innings, giving up 2, 1 and 0 runs. In his fourth start he gave up 6 runs. The cost was an A league pitcher. I think the Astros could have managed that.
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Has Issac Parades been missed this much? I don’t know, but maybe his simple method of hitting should be required of every Astro player for the time being, and yes, that includes you Jose. Make every pitcher work.
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Dan, please pass the malaise. This offensive sandwich is so dry.
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Only if I can mustard the strength OP. I will try to catch up with your puns.
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Only if I can mustard the strength OP. I will try to catch up with your puns.
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The offense is awful. This is also Framber’s 4th straight weak start. Should they sit him down for a start or two and let the rookies start. I was impressed with Blubaugh when he was here.
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Framber from the penthouse to the out house. And just start mailing in the offense.
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The Astros are 4-6 in their last 10 games….during which they gained a game on the 3-7 M’s and 2 games on the 2-8 Rangers.
We know the Astros are 1-1/2 games up on the M’s, but they are also 7 up on the Rangers. You go back 10 games and the Rangers were only 5 back. If they had played well – let’s say had gone 7-3 – they would only be 2 games back at this point and a real threat.
This is the oddest pennant “race” you could ever witness.
The two best teams in the division the last 10 games are the 5-5 Angels (8.5 games back) and the 6-4 A’s (12 games back).
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It is completely fair to talk about how bad the offense has been. But let’s be real, when you are giving up double digit runs in a game, even if the offense is good that day and gives you 7 it doesn’t matter. The middle game in Detroit is the first time in weeks that you can actually blame the offense. The rest of the time, its 12-0, 10-0, 14-1, 7-1, these games are not winnable even if Cam Smith hadn’t been replaced by an alien at the all star break.
The entire team has fallen off a cliff. Sometimes I feel bad for TK and Blummer. When Framber gave up 6 in the first inning, I could turn it off and move on with my day. They have to sit there and commentate it.
The team could use that hot streak they have been waiting on from Walker or Diaz. I don’t mean, yea, he hit .287 for a month, I mean a week long bender where one of them hits 3 HR and well over .400 to wake this thing up. But that won’t matter if you don’t fix the pitching first. The guy on the mound can never win the game by himself, but he sure can lose it. All by himself. Fix that. First.
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I mostly agree with you Steven. I do think though that there were a few of these games if we had scored a few runs early, the pitching might have turned out different – perhaps the starter would not have been trying to be too perfect and secondly, we would not have been putting Jordan Weems and the like in the game later.
One of the things that has bothered me is that earlier in the year, the offense would have fought back in a game like yesterday when they got down early (the 6 runs) and then the other team was limited to 1 run the rest of the game. If the team had done something / anything beyond Dubon’s homer maybe they would have put some pressure on the other team. Maybe they would not come all the way back, but they would at least feel like they are never out of a game. They just seem to have little fight right now and that is very bothersome.
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Dan, there were 14 games yesterday. 12 of them were lost by teams that scored 3 or fewer runs. The Astros offense isn’t the only one scuffling. Out of 14 games yesterday there were zero games lost by a team that scored 5 runs. My point is offense is down everywhere. This isn’t an Astros problem. There were 3 blowouts, so there were more blowouts than games won 5-4. Just randomly picking one game – the Pirates beat the Blue Jays 2-1 on a Tommy Pham 2 run single. Pham has a .708 OPS this year. But situational hitting, he won that game. Well, he, and Oviedo and Nicholas and Mattson.
Good pitching can make a game winnable by anyone. We’ve seen walk offs by Cooper Hummel and Zach Short! For some reason, although Hunter Brown did his job, no one in a lineup of 9 guys wanted to win it (though Yainer was safe, and they probably had earned that win). Framber put you down 6-0 in the first inning, 5-0 before he even recorded an out. In 2022, a lot of teams could pressure that lead. In 2025, not just for the Astros, but for most of baseball, that feels insurmountable. Living in Braves country, I hear about the offensive falloff daily.
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First I agree that pitching can overcome almost anything – but with the Astros getting shutout 4 times in 5 games I thought I should talk about their lack of hitting.
Looking for a trend….MLB averages
2021 – 4.53 runs/gm / .244 BA/ .317 OBP/ .411 SLG/ .728 OPS
2022 – 4.28 runs/gm / .243 BA/ .312 OBP/ .395 SLG/ .706 OPS
2023 – 4.62 runs/gm / .248 BA/ .324 OBP/ .414 SLG/ .734 OPS
2024 – 4.39 runs/gm / .243 BA/ .312 OBP/ .399 SLG/ .711 OPS
2025 – 4.43 runs/gm / .246 BA/ .316 OBP/ .403 SLG/ .719 OPS
The Astros this year
2025 – 4.24 runs/gm / .254 BA/ .319 OBP / .401 SLG/ .720 OPS
Not a lot of contrast in these numbers though I am surprised that the runs per game are up slightly this year. The batting averages barely move from year to year – the slugging has the biggest variant which drives OPS up and down.
With the Astros it feels like feast or famine. If they get that one key hit – the dam breaks and they score way over their average. Otherwise they just seem to scuffle. Plus they are bad at small ball.
Interestingly their base numbers (BA etc.) are right at or above league average, but their runs per game are about 5% below league average.
In my mind I know pitching is more important, but putting all this pressure on their pitching staff, especially with all their injuries, returning injured and other challenges is kind of unfair.
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The Astros have started out what I called a crucial 17 game stretch by going 1-5 and only being in two of those games. Things can turn around quickly. After an abysmal start Baltimore has been really good. We get them 4 more times, then remaining on the calendar we get 3 against NYY, 3 at TOR, and 3 with SEA at home against teams we would call “good.” However, historically we’ve had some terrible series against the lesser performing teams as well this year.
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Steven, yeah, I don’t think the pitching is going to get fixed this weekend or next week. Dana did not help with his deadline decisions. Heck, if Framber suddenly re-finds himself and Lance comes back from his month long blister problem with a new game, then we’ve got a shot. The team wide offensive slump will correct, at least to a degree. But we can’t invent a new pitching staff.
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Cubs using the same medical staff as the Astros?
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/08/kyle-tucker-was-diagnosed-with-hairline-hand-fracture-in-june.html
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I do sometimes wonder how the medical staff thing works. We used to have – I think his name was Dr. Lowe – something like that and he would often come on the radio and explain in more detail what is going on with injuries.
I wonder if when you have someone like Methodist as one of your main sponsors if they have a special “deal” with them. I like Methodist – some of my doctors are over there, but are they THE specialist the team needs to go to on these injuries? Or do they go to them and then end up going elsewhere because they missed something.
My son fell playing basketball and hurt his wrist. Went to his doctor at Kelsey Seybold – they did an X-ray – no break. He went back to school, but was still having pain and his band director (he played trumpet) sent him to a specialist – who found the break the others had missed. They put him in a cast and configured it so he could feign holding the trumpet as he was important for the band going to state marching competition.
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Another important day in Astros’ (medical) history. Yordan played Tuesday and collected two hits. He then, as planned, took Wednesday off and now they will see if he can bounce back and play back to back today and tomorrow. And if…..he is pain free hopefully his next destination is with the big team.
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sounds like we are picking up Craig Kimbrel
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Good morning!
That was a relief, especially winning the first game of the series.
Might as well give Kimbrel a shot. Whether he gets the job done is one thing, but at least he has the pedigree.
Alexander sure has been the latest lifesaver. I’m not so sure about Dana at the deadline, but he deserves credit for continually finding guys off the heap that have helped.
Thank goodness that Jesus broke out. We need a month of breaking out. Can Altuve and Diaz and maybe even Walker do it at the same time?
Is Lance going to be a different pitcher tonight than we saw earlier this year?
I’d like to see Yordan on an airplane this morning. What does he have to prove in Corpus? If he feels good, play him tonight and rest him tomorrow.
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Thoughts
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I’ve been following the progress of Jose Urquidy for more than a year now, as he’s got an Instagram page showing his sometimes brutal workouts. For anyone to come back from those injuries really takes a commitment. At this point he’s rehabbing at AAA Toledo and has pitched well. Detroit paid him a million for 2025 with a club option for 2026 after the Astros let him lose. I think he’ll pitch for the Tigers in September. I think we’ll miss him too.
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