Napoleon didn’t conquer England in a day.
The first month of baseball is tricky because you never know whether a team’s performance is a blip or a harbinger of things to come and it is important to not overreact to small sample sizes. But what would sports blogging be without the overreactions?
The Astros opened up there season with a 5-4 loss to their arch rivals. The Astros started off the game strong with three 2-out RBI’s in the bottom of the first, and a solo home run by Meyers to start the 2nd. However, the offense would not score again, squandering multiple RISP opportunities.
In the bottom of the 9th, Dubon was thrown out at home by a great throw from Juan Soto, if he had scored, the game would have been tied. Was it a good call to waive him around? Probably, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
The pitching was not as bad as their box score would suggest. Although they did allow far too many walks, that was as much of function of good patience from the Yankees as it was wildness from the Astros pitchers. Outside of one home run, Houston did a great job inducing poor contact from the Bronx Bombers, including several key double plays.
A bright spot was seeing Joe Espada manage aggressively early on. In the bottom of the 6th, Espada pinch hit Jon Singleton for Meyers with runners on the corners and two outs. Previous managers would have likely called for the hot hand fallacy (Meyers had hit a home run earlier in the game), but Espada played the matchups the best he could. In the top of the 7th, Espada called o. former closer Ryan Presley to face the Yankees most dangerous part of the lineup. Dusty Baker would have likely used a less effective weapon because it wasn’t the 8th inning yet. Even though neither of those moves worked out, it was still nice to see Espada managing like it is 2024, and not like it is 1924.
I criticized the Astros’ front office for not investing in pitching depth and, at least for today, I feel vindicated. Having to turn to Martinez and Scott in high leverage situations is far from optimal. Even though Hader looked amazing in his Houston debut, if paying him $19 million a year means giving 100 innings to waiver wire quality guys, then was it worth it? To put it bluntly, signing Hader was like a single guy buying a Rolex Submariner but forgetting to pay the electric bill.
But alas, it is a long season guys. Let’s enjoy the losses too.