Astros Fall to Cards to Close Homestand, 4-2

Go 3-3 on the homestand

After two impressive victories over St. Louis to start the series, we had hoped that the long-awaited Astros blitz back into relevance had begun.

Not yet.

Instead, Ronel Blanco appears to be in the midst of his long-overdue regression. This is his second straight loss after winning five straight. And after two strong games offensively, the Tucker-less Astros bats went back into hibernation.

Not that Blanco was bad. He allowed four runs in 5.2 innings. A sixth-inning homer to Nolan Arenado was the final blow, leaving Blanco with a final box score of five hits, two walks, and two Ks. Not bad. Good enough to win on Monday or Tuesday night, but not today.

Again, the Astros only seem to score when they homer, and they don’t homer enough. With red-hot Alex Bregman sitting along with injured Tucker, it was up to the other superstars, Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez, to pick up the slack. They were 0-7.

On the bright side, Trey Cabbage, acquired in the off-season from the Angels, had his first homer as an Astro. Even better, Yainer Diaz appears to be a good hitter, after all. After a disappointing early season, he hit his third homer in three games, going back-to-back with Cabbage in the fifth.

But two solo homers alone are usually not enough to win.

After a month of seemingly grounding out to the left side every at bat when he wasn’t swinging wildly at every breaking ball a foot off the plate, Diaz has seemingly found his natural stroke — power to the opposite field. Today’s homer to right was almost a replay of yesterday’s. Not that he can’t pull a 450 ft homer, too. But when he can go oppo, he’s on.

If it’s not too late to have hope for the Astros, the Diaz renaissance is good news.

Box score HERE.