Yainer Diaz remains Astros RBI leader with all three of today’s Astros runs
Is Justin Verlander’s return a blessing for the Astros?
In three games so far, all you can say is that he kept some other overworked pitcher off the mound. Today he allowed five runs in 4.2 innings. True, a tight early strike zone and a two-run, two-out bloop single cost Justin dearly, but after three poor starts, the excuses are running thin. Considering the excellence elsewhere on the staff, if Verlander doesn’t return to form soon, should he be considered for a spot in the playoff rotation rather than youngsters like Spencer Arrighetti or Hunter Brown? Methinks no.
Three leadoff walks in the first turned into two Reds runs. Verlander worked around trouble in innings two, three, and four, but in the fifth, with two outs Santiago Espinal hit a seeing-eye bloop single that scored runners from second and third. That was it for Verlander, but his relief, Kaleb Ort, allowed Amed Rosario to single home Espinal, giving Verlander five earned runs in less than five innings. In his three games back from IL, Verlander has a 6.86 ERA.
You can say he was a victim of bad luck, but when you allow eight hits and four walks with only three Ks in less than five innings, bad things tend to happen.
Rust…Or Age?
Meanwhile, Yainer Diaz kept the Astros in the game with a two-RBI single in the third inning and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
The Astros only managed six hits, were 2-9 with runners in scoring position, and left eight runners on base.
It just goes to show that the Astros’ success in August had almost everything to do with the starting pitching. As that goes, so goes the Astros through most of 2024.