{"id":783400,"date":"2026-08-20T04:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/783400\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T04:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:15:15","slug":"angels-offense-struggles-in-loss-to-astros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/783400\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels’ offense struggles in loss to Astros"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Ethan Pecko struck out four in his major-league debut, five Houston relievers pitched shutout ball for five-plus innings and Christian V\u00e1zquez homered as the Astros beat the Angels 3-2 on Wednesday<\/a> night.<\/p>\n

Pecko, a 2023 sixth-round selection by Houston, was ranked ninth in the Astros\u2019 system by MLB Pipeline. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up three hits, two runs and two walks in 3 2\/3 innings. He was the 17th starter used by the Astros this season, which tied a franchise record set in 1965.<\/p>\n

V\u00e1zquez\u2019s solo homer, his seventh of the year, put the Astros ahead in the third inning.<\/p>\n

Nick Allen pinch-hit for Jeremy Pe\u00f1a after Pe\u00f1a was hit by a 100-mph sinker on his hand in the first. The Astros said he had a bruised right hand.<\/p>\n

In the same inning, manager Joe Espada was ejected after arguing a hit-by-pitch call.<\/p>\n

Denzer Guzman put the Angels<\/a> ahead in the fourth with what initially appeared to be a three-run homer. But, the call was changed to a two-run double due to fan interference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s Jose Altuve tied the score with an RBI double in the bottom half of the inning, and Cam Smith put the Astros ahead with a sacrifice fly that scored Isaac Paredes.<\/p>\n

Bennett Sousa (1-1) earned the win in relief and Josh Hader earned his 18th save.<\/p>\n

Walbert Ure\u00f1a (8-9) worked five innings for the Angels, giving up three runs and three hits with seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Ethan Pecko struck out four in his major-league debut, five Houston relievers pitched shutout ball for five-plus innings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,42,5,1250,47374,86493,3930,96329,96327,5828,817,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4885,4,96330,31,3215,96328],"class_list":["post-783400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-astros","tag-baseball","tag-christian-vazquez","tag-ethan-pecko","tag-five-plus-innings","tag-hit","tag-hit-by-pitch-call","tag-houston-reliever","tag-jeremy-pena","tag-jose-altuve","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-loss","tag-mlb","tag-nick-allen-pinch-hit","tag-offense","tag-run","tag-same-inning"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117125901411790402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783400","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=783400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}