{"id":669557,"date":"2026-04-08T04:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669557\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T04:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:07:15","slug":"astros-dynamic-offense-pitching-for-additional-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669557\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros\u2019 dynamic offense pitching for additional help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Paced by early AL MVP candidate Yordan Alvarez, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/houston-astros\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Astros<\/a> opened the MLB season with a dynamic offense, able to produce power and finesse. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Through their opening 11 outings, the Astros led the league with 111 hits, 64 walks and a .394 on-base percentage. Their 34 doubles were 12 more than the next-best club. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They ranked second with a .299 team batting average and were tied for second with 15 home runs. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Entering Tuesday\u2019s matchup against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/colorado-rockies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado Rockies<\/a>, the Astros\u2019 electric offense collected 28 runs in their previous three games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So why were the Astros 6-5 and losers of two straight?<\/p>\n<p>Well, including Saturday\u2019s 11-0 shutout over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/athletics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Athletics<\/a>, the Astros&#8217; pitching staff yielded 32 runs in its previous four games. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With Alvarez (1.0), Cam Smith (0.9) and Jose Altuve (0.9)\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JustBB_Media\/status\/2041558595356053968?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">leading the AL in fWAR<\/a>, the Astros&#8217; offense opened the campaign with big run-producing numbers.<\/p>\n<p>But so has the pitching staff.<\/p>\n<p>Astros\u2019 offense outproducing pitchers\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As Alvarez continues to generate early AL MVP buzz, entering Monday with an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/astros\/onsi\/news\/astros-duo-impressively-on-base-percentage\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">OBP of .540<\/a>, tops in the league. Altuve ranked second at .531. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 2019 AL Rookie of the Year and three-time All-Star, Alvarez collected 12 hits, including four home runs, during his opening 50 at-bats. He also had a league-leading 13 bases on balls. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Will Altuve continue to enjoy a career renaissance? At 35 years old, the former MVP and nine-time All-Star opened with a slash line of .378\/.531\/.649\/1.179. The future Hall of Famer could establish career highs if he maintains his early-season pace. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The dynamic offense could keep the Astros in the pennant chase, but can the pitching staff, and its 5.75 earned-run average, do its part?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paced by early AL MVP candidate Yordan Alvarez, the Houston Astros opened the MLB season with a dynamic&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,139,54,3211,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-669557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-astros","12":"tag-houstonastros","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116367120668029128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}