{"id":673286,"date":"2026-04-11T13:18:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673286\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T13:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:18:26","slug":"astros-pitching-issues-growing-as-short-starts-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673286\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Pitching Issues Growing as Short Starts Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Astos were plagued with injuries during the 2025 campaign and ended their season not making the playoffs. It was the first time since 2018. Surely, things would get turned around during the offseason with players healing and a new clean slate.<\/p>\n

Not so much.<\/p>\n

The Astros currently have 10 players on the injury report and eight of those are pitchers.<\/a> So, it should come as no surprise that Houston has a very troubling pattern starting early on in the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The argument can no longer be made that it is just one bad outing, it is a trend. MLB.com\u2019s Brian McTaggart<\/a> reported that the Astros starting pitchers have failed to complete five innings in eight of their first 14 games.<\/p>\n

That is some serious pressure being applied to the entire pitching staff, but more so to the relievers. That trend continued on Friday night when the Astros faced off against the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n

Another Short Start Raises Concerns\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It was rookie right-hander Tatsuya Imai’s turn in the rotation to start against the Mariners on Friday. It wasn\u2019t really a struggle; it was a disaster. This came as a bit of a surprise after Imai had given a great performance<\/a> in his last start. Looking back though, that may have been the outlier as Imai struggled in his first outing.<\/p>\n

Imai finished his third start with a stat line:<\/p>\n

.1 IP1 H3 ER4 BB0 SO37 pitches<\/p>\n

He did not finish the first inning. In his third Major League start, Imai walked the first two batters he faced, allowed a single from Julio Rodriguez, which loaded the bases, then threw a wild pitch to allow a score.<\/p>\n

He walked another before hitting Randy Arozarena with a pitch. In the first five batters, Seattle already had two runs on the board and two hitters had been hit with pitches.<\/p>\n

The bleeding didn\u2019t stop there, but you get the picture. It wasn\u2019t long before Imai was replaced by Steven Okert. Imai finished the night with a season 7.27 ERA.<\/p>\n

Astros Rotation Showing Cracks\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Mike Burrows | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Houston, Imai\u2019s outing wasn\u2019t an outlier; it is indicative of a larger, troubling pattern.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the positives, there are two.<\/p>\n

Hunter Brown – .84 ERA, 10.2 IP and 1 ERLance McCullers Jr. – 3.27 ERA, 11 IP and 4 ER<\/p>\n

Now beyond that the picture is bleak.<\/p>\n

Tatsuya Imai – 7.27 ERAMike Burrows – 5.63 ERA, 16 IP and 10 ERCristian Javier – 12.54 ERA, 9.1 IP and 13 ER<\/p>\n

With only two starters performing even remotely well, this is putting heavy stress on the relievers. The bullpen is having to absorb heavy innings early on in games.<\/p>\n

Astros Bullpen Feeling the Impact\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros relief pitcher Ryan Weiss | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

When starters are not working their way deeper into games, it is clearly obvious that the relievers will be stretched. The Astros are just not performing when it comes to pitching.<\/a><\/p>\n

During the offseason, the team tried to beef up the pitching depth by bringing in Imai, Mike Burrows, Kai-Wei Teng and Ryan Weiss. The plan should have worked, but we all know how fast things can change in the world of baseball. Instead of just helping and easing into the system, these new arms have to handle a heavy load.<\/p>\n

It is imperative to note that Hunter Brown, the team\u2019s pitching anchor, is among those on the injured list. This moved Imai up in the rotation and increased the pressure. Up until the game on Friday evening, Imai looked as though he was handling it well. <\/p>\n

The bullpen is struggling. Together, they hold the worst ERA in MLB of 7.08 after 61 innings pitched through 14 games. The relievers have given up 16 home runs and walked 42 batters.<\/p>\n

Early signs point to more inconsistency across the team. At this point after another loss on Friday, the Astros have dropped five in a row and fall to 6-8 on the season. Something has to change and it starts with pitching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Astos were plagued with injuries during the 2025 campaign and ended their season not making the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,139,54,3211,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-673286","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\/116386276323569549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673286","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=673286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}