I mostly stay in my lane about the Astros, writing posts about things that catch my interest or draw my ire. The same applies to game recaps. There were typically more positive angles to write about than negatives in past seasons. If that was the tradeoff for two World Series titles, four pennants, and seven consecutive ALCS appearances, well, so be it. You didn’t have to twist my arm too much in that case. But with this season’s terrible start, it isn’t hard to find a negative or five to gravitate toward on a given day. Plenty of this club’s current woes are self-inflicted, at least to some degree. But sometimes the team simply gets beat. Not much more complicated than that. Saturday’s game was the prime example of such a case.
We’ve all known for a while that Seattle is at their best when its pitching staff is fully operational. Not only is it a deep staff, at least in the first four to five starting spots, but it also has the upside to match. Frankly, I would consider it a very successful series if the Astros somehow took two of three from the Mariners this weekend. We saw the blueprint of how they could do it, with Ronel Blanco bending but not breaking. Keep the score close. Have the lineup do just enough to force a pitching change to take advantage of the bullpen. Capitalize on mistakes, both in the box and in the field. But that is sometimes for naught, especially if you run into a buzzsaw.
Logan Gilbert was that buzzsaw Saturday night, limiting the Astros to two hits and four walks across eight innings of shutout ball, including six strikeouts. You know a pitcher isn’t sweating too much when opposing hitters barely register among the top exit velocities that game.
The Astros managed to threaten a couple of times in Gilbert’s eight innings of work, but it didn’t matter. Following Yordan Alvarez’s bunt single — yes, you read that right — and Alex Bregman’s walk in the first inning, it looked like Houston was applying some pressure for a moment. But it was fleeting as Jeremy Peña’s fielder choice ended the bottom half of the frame. The next best opportunity was another Bregman walk and Peña’s single in the seventh inning as they put two runners on with Yainer Díaz coming to…oh, wait, ground ball double play. Never mind.
On the other side, Framber Valdez wasn’t particularly sharp. He wasn’t awful, mind you, but also not good. Few of his pitches, other than perhaps his curveball, were effective. Remove the curveball and you find only four whiffs in the evening on 28 swings. Seattle wasn’t fooled. I think it was a mistake for him to face the Mariners’ lineup for a third time, especially with how they were hitting off him throughout his start. It was a night where you could tell Valdez didn’t have his best stuff and it was only a matter of time before the implosion came. Trying to get a sixth inning out of Valdez, with the game still in a manageable 3-0 deficit, proved too much. As soon as Cal Raleigh’s two-run shot in the sixth happened, it was essentially over. Or, at least, it felt that way. Those feelings weren’t wrong tonight.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a sweep against the Mariners, especially with Kirby and Gilbert starting the first two games. It felt like too much of a reach. Bryce Miller, however, is pitching well himself, so the Astros don’t really catch a break for the last game of this series. Hunter Brown is also starting for Houston, and, in turn, confidence isn’t high at the moment for a series win. But a win would mean taking two of three from the AL West leader at the moment, which would be a nice break in a season not full of them.