Despite all the injuries and all the problems over the first two-and-a-half months of the season, the Astros are just three games back in the division and two in the Wild Card race after taking two of three against Cleveland, their third series win in a row.
The team has won 17 of their last 28 and appear much more like the Astros we have gotten used to over the last decade. Some standout performances and some injury returns have made a big difference.
Yordan continues Yordaning.
Yordan Alvarez hit his 25th homer on Sunday. He leads the American League in that category and despite his prodigious power, he says he will not participate in the home run derby. Probably good news to the average Astros fan who would prefer their best player remain healthy. Alvarez is currently slashing .320/.424/.630 with a ridiculous OPS of 1.054. He has been absolutely dominant at the plate both with power and with average. He’s also getting on base a ton thanks to his high walk rate — intentional and otherwise. He is a superstar and shouldering a lot of the offensive load for this team.
Returns have bolstered the rotation.
It’s remarkable what a rotation with Hunter Brown and a bullpen with Josh Hader can do to help settle down what began as the worst season of pitching for the Astros in many, MANY years. The bullpen has now become almost completely stable with Bryan King, Steven Okert, Hader, Enyel De Los Santos and Nate Pearson. It has also helped to give Bryan Abreau time to figure out what is going wrong with his pitching this season.
Flailing starters are coming around.
Yes, Spencer Arrighetti has had a couple of rough outings, but otherwise, the remaining starters have really started to come around Tatsuya Imai gave up three runs, but struck out 11 over the weekend. Kai-Wei Teng gave up just one run the Guardians on Sunday in that win. Imai finally looks like the pitcher the Astros expected when they signed him in the offseason and Teng seems to have shaken off the effects of a couple of tough outings. Mike Burrows is now ping-pong-ing between starting and the bullpen, but that could change as Ronel Blanco is in the midst of his rehab starts. What was the team’s biggest liability is returning to full strength.
Jeremy Peña is crushing baseballs.
Since returning from injury in May, Peña has batted .295 with six homers and 18 RBI and a .360 on-base percentage. He had two home runs in one game over the weekend and continues to display exceptional defensive skills at short. Getting him anchoring the leadoff spot again has really helped to stabilize the entire lineup and made a formidable first five with Peña, Alvarez, the still-hot-hitting Christian Walker, Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve in the five hole.
