The ace, Framber Valdez. goes to salvage a win against the Giants and get the Stros back to .500
The Astros have not scored more than two earned runs in a game this year. Absolutley abysmal. I wanted to think that the dastardly coaching staff was screwing with the hitters’ heads during Spring Training (during which they were also bad), and, after all, didn’t the team have a terrible start last year?
It turns out that pitching was the culprit last year. In the first six games last year, the bats were scorching at a 127 wRC+ rate. So, if you believe it is a coaching problem, the same coaches who prepared the hitters so well last year have apparently failed this year. And the same pitching coaches who failed to prepare the pitchers last year have done a great job this year, judging from the team ERA of 2.80, seventh in the league.
Last year, the Astros wasted great hitting with terrible pitching, and this year, they are wasting good pitching with awful hitting. Last night, the Astros managed to move down one step in team BA, from 27th to 28th in the league. At least Seattle is worse, and right ahead of the Stros are the Twins, our next series opponent.
This can’t remain. At least Jose is hitting. He’s about the only one.
Here are the lineups and media access information. Zack Dezenzo gets a start in right field amid growing controversy as to whether it was wise to bring up 22-year-old Cam Smith, who has failed so far to produce the spark he was brought in to create.
Only two starters today are hitting above .200, and only one other is hitting above .150.
