A win is a win, but I don’t think the Astros deserved it. Neither did the Orioles, though.
One of my favorite things about this current iteration of the Astros is their propensity for turning seemingly below-average pitchers into contributors. While a handful of organizations are generally renowned for their pitching development, and deservingly so, Houston undoubtedly belongs within that conversation. Their ability to turn a pitcher like Jason Alexander, already 32 with a fastball averaging around 92 mph, into a fourth- or fifth-starter type with decent results is genuinely impressive. And this kind of development isn’t exclusive to Alexander, as multiple other pitchers have performed well either as a starter or reliever with little to no expectations from us outsiders. It is also a key reason why the bottom hasn’t fallen out for this team with so many injuries across the pitching staff and roster in general.
Alexander has continued to provide a decent floor to the backend of the rotation in recent weeks, with the right-hander holding the Orioles to two earned runs across six innings on Saturday. In his last eighteen innings, including this start against Baltimore, Alexander has allowed only two earned runs with 15 strikeouts and only four walks. That’ll play, especially for a team that can’t exactly turn away quality innings at the moment.
With how this game was unfolding, it felt like the Astros were going to give Alexander plenty of support. In three of the first four innings, Houston’s lineup was generating plenty of traffic on the basepaths, with at least two baserunners at one point or another in those frames. Mauricio Dubón’s RBI single in the second inning off of Cade Povich got the scoring started, with Jacob Melton and Carlos Correa each adding RBI singles in the fourth inning. A 3-0 lead after four innings was a fairly pleasant start to this game.
Alas, right when I get my hopes up, reality comes biting back. This time, Alexander allowed his only runs of the game, courtesy of Dylan Carlson’s two-run shot in the top half of the fifth inning to make it 3-2. But Jose Altuve would get one of those runs back with a solo home run in the seventh inning to give the Astros a 4-2 advantage. At this point, with only two innings to go, I was starting to feel good about Houston’s chances. Reality came back a second time in this game when my confidence was rebounding a tiny bit. This time, it was Jackson Holliday, and he made Bennett Sousa pay for hanging a slider in the middle of the zone.
Now 4-4, the Astros and Orioles would dare each other to score again and win this game. Both failed to capitalize. A scoreless ninth paved the way for three more innings, with neither team seemingly unable to score that elusive winning run. But it was cool to see Enyel De Los Santos only throw two pitches in the eleventh inning and secure three outs for crying out loud. Remember my point earlier about pitching development? Wouldn’t it be something if De Los Santos, on his ninth organization, clicked with the Astros and became a reliable contributor in this postseason push? Will it happen? Probably not. But it would be pretty funny, and a relief, if it did. I mean, this team can’t afford to lose any more players, and they need all of the help they can muster at the moment.
Anyway, with Joe Espada burning through his bench, we were starting to enter the stage of the game when you hope for a merciful end. Thankfully, former Oriole Ramón Urías decided to play spoiler against his former club for the second consecutive night, although it wasn’t the most impressive of walkoff hits.
In terms of merciful endings, though, I’ll gladly take this result. And with the Mariners losing to the Mets, the Astros saw their AL West lead grow back to 1.5 games. The rubber game for Sunday, with Houston aiming for another series win, will feature Cristian Javier and Dean Kramer.