Some folks may not know that the worldwide famous acronym YIE was invented here at Chipalatta. It stands for Yes, It’s Early, and we roll it out when, well, it is early.
Like now.
This looked like it would be a very different post when the Astros were sitting at 0-2 and were halfway through what looked like another lethargic offensive and pitching effort in game three. Trailing 6-0 and looking quite dead, the remote control was bopping over to the NCAA tournament, even with the UH Cougars out for the rest of the season.
But as most folks know, the Astros went charging past the Angels and held on for dear life for an 11-9 win Saturday and then followed it up with a back-and-forth Sunday that ended up 9-7 to the good.
So, what do we think so far…
Negative – YIE
- The three pitchers directly behind Hunter Brown in the rotation all fell pretty hard over the weekend. Friday, Mike Burrows positively got through 5.2 innings with 6 Ks but gave up 9 hits including 2 homers and 5 runs. Cristian Javier limped through 4.2 innings, giving up 6 runs and 2 home runs. Tatsuya Imai couldn’t find the plate and only made it through 2.2 innings while blowing a 4 run lead giving up 4 walks and 4 runs.
- Bryan Abreu came into a non-save 5 run lead on Saturday, got two quick outs, walked 2 and then gave up a 3 run homer to raise the tensions for everyone before securing the third out. On Sunday, in a save situation with a 3 run lead, Abreu got one out, but again couldn’t find the plate walking two around the out and bringing the tying run to the plate. Bryan King came in to secure the save.
- A couple of the hitters the Astros were depending upon had low or very low BAs – Cam Smith – .077 BA/ Isaac Paredes – .188 BA. . But as you will see – that is not the whole story for these hitters. Cam scored 3 runs in the last two games of the series and more importantly he was flying to the far reaches of right field to snag a number of big outs. Paredes scored 3 runs and knocked in 4 runs and has showed up at 1B, 2B, 3B and DH in the four games series.
- The Angels out homered the Astros 9 to 1 during the series. But the dominance did not show up in the win column as they split the series. Another stat was important, team-to-team. The Angels had 7 errors and the Astros had none. This was especially critical in the game 3 comeback as the Angels committed two errors to help feed the 8 run inning by the Astros.
Positive – YIE
- Hunter Brown’s 4 walks helped to limit him to 4.2 innings, but he had 9 Ks and kept the Angels off the scoreboard in another of his hard-luck no-decision outings. He looked season-ready.
- Christian Walker has been hitting like someone who watched a lot of his 2025 at bats in the offseason and wanted to do something about it. After 4 games, he has 2 runs scored, 3 RBIs, and 3 doubles, and seems to be catching up on fastballs he missed last season, posting a .308 BA and only 1 K to date.
- Joey Loperfido after a hot Spring Training is leading the team with a .333 BA even with a 1 for 5 on Sunday.
- Yordan Alvarez is matching Walker’s .308 BA and leads the team with a 1.141 OPS. The opponents have not wanted to pitch to him with people in scoring position, as his 5 walks to date attest.
- AJ Blubaugh has had two good outings to date. He lost the opener giving up a homer to Mike Trout (who hasn’t) but was awarded the win in game 4 with his nice two-inning stint.
- Newcomer Kai-Wei Teng earned the win on Saturday with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief. He looked good and happened to be pitching when the team scored 11 straight runs behind him.
- Even with the multi shifts around the infield, the defense looked strong no matter who was playing where.
In the end, the Astros dug out of that 0-2 hole to end up 2-2 and a half game behind the team that shall not be named from Arlington in the AL West. The Red Sox face them tomorrow, and hopefully, Lance McCullers Jr. will channel his inner Hunter Brown and not his inner Imai, Burrows, or Javier.
There are concerns and other things that we can enjoy. But Yes, It’s Early.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
25 responses to “Astros’ 2026: The ultimate YIE”
Good morning!
First things first. Did the Huskies come all the way back, or did Duke give it all back? Unfortunately, for those like me that had Duke winning it all, they really had a terrible breakdown in those last ten seconds. They didn’t even need to get the ball across the mid court line. The Huskies would have been forced to foul. But give Connecticut credit for adding to the lore of March Madness. A finish like no other.
Dan, getting out homered 9-1 is not sustainable for the Astros. Nice to see some of the guys get some big hits, but let’s face it, the Angels should have left town with three wins. They were terrible defensively.
I think Rome noted the ERA of the Astro starters through 4 games is 7.94. And our 5th starter, Lance McCullers has a tough assignment tonight. I’m pretty sure our rotation will be less worse than it has looked so far though. But our pen is simply not sustainable. And heck, Bryan Abreu will now be sitting until Wednesday at least. What’s up with his fastball average of 93.2 yesterday? It’s obvious the mechanics are out of whack, because he can’t throw a strike. He was not throwing strikes against the Space Cowboys earlier in the week. If he’s throwing 93.2, there might be a reason for it that none of us want to consider.
Blubaugh is my first series MVP. But who is going to get all the pen outs this week?
I sure like the .444 OBP from Jose. Gosh, if he’s willing to commit, then he’ll start seeing pitches he can hit.
When the Astros win 11-9 and 9-7, they’ll lose as many of those games as they win. We’ll create enough runs to stay in games. But if Dana’s overhauled pitching staff does not come together, then we’re screwed and our GM will be out of a job before the season is over.
LikeLike
The Angels scored 29 runs in 4 games. They have to leave disappointed with a split.
We scored 18, we did not have our first lead of the season until the 24th inning of the season. Then an avalanche happened over the last 12 innings of the series and we should be happy with the split given how consistent the Angels lineup stayed against our pitching.
Baseball is a funny sport. You have no idea if this is an outlier, or if its just their offense defined. Beating up Detmers and Urena and Lucchesi came a lot easier than Soriano and the leverage guys. I guess thats why they call it good pitching versus bad pitching. We seem very suspect to good pitching. We seem able to exploit bad pitching. Hopefully things smooth out and land in the middle, because we face a lot of good pitching the next 2 weeks.
I’ve not been thrilled with some of the choices. We have known Yainer is scuffling, and carried that over from ST. I wish they had not let him take critical at bats late in the first two games. But Joe has to manage people too not just stats, so I’m sure he knows what he is doing, or at least more than I do. I just feel like letting Yainer bat with 2 runners on base, 2 outs, in a 5-2 game when he represented the tying run was throwing in the towel. But like I said two days ago when it happened, Espada probably looked down the line and saw Allen, Vazquez, Pena and Loperfido, had probably committed to not playing JP, and thought of that crew Yainer probably has the best chance of running into. Letting him bat in game 1 with a 1-0 game in the 7th with a runner on 2nd and no outs seems criminal though. Get a guy out there that can get that runner over, bunt, whatever it is. We saw Vazquez bunt last night. Send him out there to bunt and you don’t even blow through 2 players to move a runner over.
Extra inning for Blubaugh dfidn’t cost us the game as we ended up not scoring, but it sure cost us a run. An extra inning for Munoz also didn’t cost us the game but cost us 2 runs and could have. Is this what we are going to see all year? An attempt to get an extra inning out of a guy? I knew we had a bunch of 5 inning guys in the rotation, but little did I think on an opening 4 game set we would only see 1 guy actually get in 5. And I would argue that guy should have been done right at 5.
Mike Burrows threw 1567 pitches last year. That was a lifetime high in one year. Espada took him from pitch 83 after 5 innings to 11 more pitches in the 6th with them down 3. Putting him at 94 pitches is not the way to think about managing Burrows and his future. If he pitches 30 games at 90+ pitches a game that is 2700 pitches. Do you really want Burrows at that number? Even 80 pitches is 2400 for a season pace, and I’m not sure I want him at 2400 this year, but maybe. We got this guy for 6 years. Pace his growth into those kinds of seasons.
Dave, I don’t know what to say about Bryan Abreu. When he was younger and sitting 97-98 while sometimes hitting 100, I called him, multiple times over the years, the best pitcher on this team and the guy I want on the bump if I needed one out to win it all. Somewhere along the way, he started locating his slurve, not sure if its a slider or curve, a little better, but then fell in love with it. When he started sitting 95-96 I didn’t panic, because he was mixing in more off speed. But he can’t survive late inning work at 93, even if he is throwing strikes, because he is a thrower not a pitcher. He doesn’t have a repertoire. He just has (had) a ton of velo and the ability to keep you off it. He isn’t going to start dotting corners. His strength was keeping you off balance as a hitter, but he can’t do that at 93. It’s certainly concerning. King got the job done, but it wasn’t without some angst because he, at his very pumped (which he was yesterday) sat at 93-94, but he is more of a pitcher so maybe it will work.
AJ Blubaugh was a closer in college. Maybe the mentality is there. I do think he is a candidate for the 8th inning going forward. He has the velocity, but can be somewhat inconsistent in location. Whatever adrenaline they stuck in his veins for the 5th inning of game 1, need it every night brother.
Yordan didn’t have a MVP level series, but man, the guy is dialed in. He is controlling the zone, and Suzuki saw it and just put him on base a bunch. I’ve never been a believer that competitors actually pitch around hitters, that is usually overblown in our world as fans and by media too much, but this series, he got pitched around.
Lastly we really benefited by the Angels ghastly defense. Walkers double was huge, but lets be honest, Soler looked lost trying to catch it. Cam makes that play. Adell had a similar play out there the day before. Their infield threw 3 past a first baseman in Schanuel that has the mobility of a boulder. They booted balls, and they paid the price for going after guys like Moncada for offense knowing he has to play the field. As concerned as we are about a few of our configurations defensively, until they ask Altuve to go catch an inning I don’t think we could ever be that bad. As much as I want to see Isaac in there, Walker made a few scoops and looked good defensively until that one ball skipped off his glove. It was a bad spot, but over all in the series his defense was a plus. And, its just 4 games, but he is hitting the ball.
LikeLike
daveb – If All-Universe Paul Skein can be given a mulligan after giving up 5 runs in 0.2 innings – I will give our trio of Javier, Burrows and Imai a chance to settle in. I feel better about Burrows and Imai than Javier. I think Imai and Burrows were over-pumped.- let’s see them at a normal adrenaline situation.
On the radio I think they said Altuve went like 80 ABs in 2025 before reaching 5 walks – so this is a bit encouraging (though he still swings at low crap down the middle).
Steven
I know Blubaugh gave up that homer in his extra inning, but I think it was more about pitching to Trout than not throwing to Trout – but I know you said his fastball velocity was down in that last inning. I sure like how he approaches the batters – maybe he will have to be our substitute closer. Glad King did what he did yesterday after the jam Abreu got into.
Yordan had them scared after hitting a homer that didn’t count in the first game and a real one in the second game.
I can’t blame Walker for that one he missed diving for it. He probably forgot he had Nick Allen next to him and thought he had the range-challenged Altuve there. But it looked like Allen might not even get there if he hadn’t tipped it. The Angels are going to give up a lot of unearned runs playing defense like that.
I have to say I don’t remember the Astros putting up that many runs in those two games without a homer.
LikeLike
War in the Middle East. Uncertainty at home. NFL Refs being replaced by temps. MLB perhaps headed for a work stoppage late this year.
Welcome to 2026!
Geaux Astros!
LikeLike
Chip, you mean it is a normal season as always…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dan, I’ve been saying for 20 (probably more like 30) years…”when the dust settles and we get back to normal…”
Well, if I’ve learned anything in my old age…this is “normal” and the dust ain’t settling. So, just deal with it!
LikeLike
Well the dust from 20 years ago has settled and replaced with the dust that has been stirred up every year since.
LikeLike
Chip your litany of “horrors” happening takes me back to my favorite movie dialog along those lines.
Peter Venkman: …or you could accept the fact that this city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor Lenny: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor. RealWrath-of-God type stuff!
Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Egon Spengler: 40 years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes!
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!
LikeLike
Well blow me down fairy dust (see what I did there Dan) : Lance looking fabulous and Carlos fielding fabulous and Yordan looking deadly.
LikeLike
Talking about rising from the dead, Lazarus McCullers was very impressive tonight.
LikeLike
Hey Simon – Hey AstroNut!
Yes – Lance rises from the dead, Yordan hits a long one and Altuve with 4 for 4 / 2 homers and a walk
LikeLike
The test scores are in for tonight. All around “A’s” for the good guys. Brought back memories of old.
LikeLike
Good morning!
That kind of a team effort sure does change the complexion of things. Us cynics have been quieted, at least for the moment. The dugout must have been pretty pumped up watching Lance take control from the start. He had not thrown 7 innings since September 21, 2022. And he made it look easy.
I will say though that Ranger Suarez did look more like a journeyman in the late stages of his career, rather than a guy that Scott Boras just got 130 million for over the next 5 years.
Did someone really convince Jose Altuve to become selective? Or is this wonderful propensity to take a walk just a cruel tease?
Brice Matthews does not look like he carries 190 pounds on that frame. And that compact swing does not look like it’s going to send a ball 434 feet. Wouldn’t it be something for this guy to turn himself into an everyday MLB player? So much raw talent.
Now I’m wondering if these same bats can get to Garrett Crochet and help give our ace a win tonight. Tough assignment.
LikeLike
The Astros forced 148 pitches last night. I’m sure its a lot easier to stay in the zone on a lefty throwing 90 and not Soriano throwing 101, but it was good to see. They were 28th in pitches seen last year, and the 2 teams that were worse are not offenses we want to be in any statistical company with. Yes Dave, I think Breslow was watching Suarez pitch and thought to himself what have I done. 90, flat, no movement, and erratic command. Some of that he can work on, but most of it just looks and smells like a maybe not so much in the far future – a bad contract.
Impressed with McCullers. While the rest of the pitching staff relies on the “well its early” excuse, LMJ went out and executed. He changed things up in the 2nd and 3rd times through the order, and the Red Sox hitters didn’t look like they had a plan. One thing we aren’t used to seeing from LMJ, even in his prime, was attacking the zone that way. Was it 19 out of 22 for strikes after 3? It was something insane, especially from him, the guy that made getting to 100 pitches in the 5th famous. Last night was a clinic for the rest of the staff in confidence in trusting your stuff. The fact that Espada watched him pitch last year, then trusted him to finish that 7th with 2 runners knowing the game was still within Boston’s reach if they did something with that at bat, but he trusted him and it worked. Of course, its the life of a manager, if it doesn’t he is taking harpoons today, so kudos to Joe for sticking with him in the moment.
Yordan looks like showed up to compete for a MVP this year. He means it. It all looks like little leaguers throwing beach balls to him. Credit to Kurt Suzuki for realizing it right away because Alex Cora seemed indifferent to it. Glad some guys, especially little big man, showed up to disguise it a little, if Cora can just ignore Yordan for two more days and keep throwing him strikes we might have that winning road record.
LikeLike
Sorry someone started talking to me at work, don’t they know I’m busy opinionating? I meant winning home stand.
LikeLike
Z – Great grades all around as you say.
daveb – I was thinking the same thing about Brice – he looks like a skinny thing there and then he launches the longest home run in the majors this season. It gave me Jimmy Wynn vibes, Jimmy was only like 5′-9″ 170 lbs, but man he could put a motor behind that ball.
The Toy Cannon has gone silent – ALL THINGS ASTROS
Steven – how dare they interrupt our blogging with your work. That was an awesome outing from Lance and for the Red Sox a disturbing outing from Suarez.
LikeLike
Talking about Jimmy Wynn and thinking back to Astrodome days – of course a rare home run in those days (or a win by the home team) would trigger the exploding scoreboard celebration. One thing that I remember from those days – sometimes when an Astro hit a long fly ball – the scoreboard operator could push a button that did not trigger the whole celebration but would light it up like it was about to begin. Then when the ball did not leave the park they would turn the lights off on it. Does anybody else remember that or is that my bad memory
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Dan, I do remember the light show faux pas.
LikeLike
You know Dan, Willie Mays is listed at 5’10”, 170.
LikeLike
I believe he was not that much taller than Jimmy, but I felt like he weighed a bit more than 170
LikeLike
Thoughts
LikeLike
I just wanted to chime in appreciating that defense as well. Having Correa and Pena on the same side of the infield should help out the staff quite a bit.
LikeLike
It is an interesting question in my mind Devin – how to rank the value of the different infielders in defense. To my mind ranking on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most important – I would say….
SS -9
3B – 8
1B – 7
2B – 6.5
Totally unscientific. I know 1B does not cover the ground of the other three, but it sure helps to know that you have a guy who will scoop everything in sight over at the first base bag.
That is why having Pena and Correa on that side of the diamond or Paredes and Correa there is so important. We saw how not having a solid left-hand side of the diamond hurt the Angels big time.
LikeLike
Chip passed this along – something to chew on or stew on….
MLB 2026: Most polarizing teams — Red Sox, Astros, more – ESPN
LikeLike
And y’all were worried! Naysayers! Pessimists! Cynics! Antagonists!
Ha!
LikeLike