Breaking Down the Astros 1st Winning Homestand of 2024
Astros go 7-3, but left some meat on the table
Despite recently losing a series to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Astros are 10-4 in their last 14 games and are playing their best baseball of the season.
This was capped by a 7-3 homestand that saw the Astros play the Athletics, Brewers, and Angels.
Today we will break down the Astros’ first winning homestand game by game.
5/13: vs Athletics 9-2 W
One of the most exciting and interesting parts of this homestand came in the 1st game of the homestand when Julia Morales and Todd Kalas switched places and for one night, Julia got to do the play-by-play and Kalas was the sideline reporter.
first-timeI think Julia did pretty well as a first time announcer. The Astros were able to score a lot to begin the homestand. Their first run of the game scored with Jeremy Pena on 1st, Jon Singleton hit a groundout and Pena ran to second and headed for third. Tyler Soderstrom’s poor throw got past the third baseman and it was 1-0 Astros.
The struggling Alex Bregman had his best game of the season as he hit not one, but two home runs, with a double and a walk for 4 RBIs. Turns out all Bregman needed was to face Oakland/Ross Stripling.
Hopefully he can produce in this upcoming road trip in Oakland. Victor Caratini also hit a 2 RBI double in the eighth, and despite the game being close for six innings, the Astros ended up winning 9-2.
Spencer Arrighetti went five innings, giving up five hits, two runs, walking two batters, and striking out five. He was able to record his first major league win after a rough start to his major league career.
Listen to Parker and Marty discuss the Astros first 50 games
5/14: vs Athletics 2-1 W (10)
In unfortunate and typical fashion, the Astros’ winning homestand was not without controversy. Ronel Blanco started for the Astros in the 2nd game of this four-game series and after three shutout innings, he was ejected for a foreign substance.
Blanco claimed that he put rosin on his non-throwing hand, inside his glove and that’s what got him ejected. He was immediately suspended ten games the day after and it was up to the bullpen to throw six (eventually seven) shutout innings.
The Astros only run at this time was an Alex Bregman solo home run. Tayler Scott threw two shutout innings, Rafael Montero and Bryan Abreu both threw a shutout inning, and with a 1-0 lead in the 8th inning, Pressly gave up a run and the game was tied.
Hader entered in the 9th inning and threw a shutout inning. Similar to their April 30th win against Cleveland, Hader reentered in the tenth inning, and unlike that April 30th outing, he was able to shut down the A’s, throwing two shutout innings.
In the bottom half of the tenth, a fly ball by Jake Myers moved Trey Cabbage to 3rd, and who else but Mr. Clutch, Victor Caratini hit a walk-off single, to give the Astros a somewhat improbable 2-1 victory.
5/15: vs Athletics 3-0 W
The Astros had a chance to take the series from the A’s with Framber Valdez on the mound. Framber is very hit-or-miss. He can go out there and throw seven shutout innings, or he could go out there and become human batting practice.
That’s hyperbole, but both sides of Framber were shown in this homestand. This game saw the good Framber. He threw seven shutout innings, giving up only two hits, two walks and striking out eight.
Seth Martinez was able to record a six-out save and the Astros bullpen was one game closer to being back in good shape. The only three runs were scored on a throwing error by Zack Gelof and a couple of sacrifice flies, one by Alex Bregman and the other by Mauricio Dubon.
The Astros have now won their first three games of the homestand.
5/16: vs Athletics 8-1 W
In the final game of this series, it was Cristian Javier’s turn to pitch well. Coming off an outing where he gave up seven runs in an inning, it was an important bounce-back outing by Javier.
He went six innings, giving up two hits, one walk, and striking out eight batters. The Astros' scoring started off in the third inning when Yainer Diaz hit a two-out bases-clearing double to make it 3-0 Astros. This was an important hit as the Astros had left two runners on in both the 1st and 2nd innings. A double by Jake Meyers scored Diaz making it 4-0, and Joey Loperfido hit his first career home run. By the end of the 3rd inning, the Astros lead 6-0.
In the 4th inning, Jeremy Pena hit a sacrifice fly, and Alex Bregman scored on a balk making it 8-0. The Astros were able to ride Javier and Shawn Dubin to a four-game series sweep over Oakland. Dubin did give up a run in the 7th inning, he helped the Astros bullpen get better as well. And his prize was a one-way ticket to Sugar Land.
5/17: vs Brewers 5-4 W
So far, the Astros longest winning streak this year is six games, and this was the sixth. Hunter Brown started this game against Milwaukee and I actually think he did better than usual. He went five innings, giving up four hits, four runs, and three walks while striking out five. Jake Bauers hit a solo home run in the 2nd inning off Brown to start the scoring.
A different Jake, (Meyers) backed up Hunter hitting a two-run home run to give the Astros a 2-1 lead. It was pretty disappointing when Joey Ortiz homered in the 4th inning (Joey Ortiz went 3 for 4, with a HR, 2B, and 3 RBI), however, Jeremy Pena would come in clutch with a three-run home run in the bottom of the 5th inning to give the Astros a 5-4 lead.
Tayler Scott, Rafael Montero, Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader all had three shutout innings, Hader looked particularly good in the 9th inning and the Astros now had six wins in a row (they won one game on the road in Detroit before this home stand started).
5/18: vs Brewers 4-2 L
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, including the Astros’ longest winning streak. Me and my dad were lucky enough to attend both games, and watch this specific game from the Crawford Boxes.
Despite the loss, this was a very good game overall. Mauricio Dubon had an RBI single in the 2nd inning to give the Astros an early 1-0 lead. Then the rest of the runs scored in the 5th inning. Verlander heavily struggled in the 5th inning. He gave up a hit to Joey Ortiz and walked both Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio to load the bases with nobody out.
After a ten-pitch at bat, the nine-hole hitter, Blake Perkins hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Brice Turang (who's Jon Singleton’s daughter’s favorite player) grounded out, moving both runners up, but more importantly, got the second out of the inning.
Then, disaster very slowly struck. William Contreras had a thirteen-pitch at bat that ended in a three-run home run, and a 4-1 Brewers lead. Verlander exited the game (he had thrown a whopping 42 pitches in this half-inning) and Seth Martinez entered and got out of the inning, but this was a gut punch.
Jake Meyers continued his hot hitting, launching a solo home run into the Crawford Boxes, one section away from me, making it 4-2.
Brewers starter Bryse Wilson and Verlander both weren’t able to go five innings, both exiting at 4.2 IP. However, both teams’ bullpens shut down the opposing offenses and the game ended at the aforementioned score of 4-2.
5/19: vs Brewers 9-4 W
Me and my dad also attended this game, although we didn’t sit in the Crawford Boxes this time. Spencer Arrighetti started his second game of this homestand and it was a bit of a rocky start.
Turang hit a lead-off double, advanced to 3rd when Caratini’s throw went off his helmet, and scored on an RBI single by Christian Yelich.
Arrighetti threw 15 pitches and was bailed out by a review that showed Yelich was caught stealing 2nd. Although he’s been kind of in a slump (at least for his standards), a home run on the first pitch thrown by Colin Rea to tie the game almost instantly.
Rea bounced back by striking out Tucker. However, he’d give up a double to Alvarez and then walk both Bregman and Pena. Singleton’s RBI groundout made it 2-1, and Jake Meyers came in clutch with a 2 RBI double to give the Astros a 4-1 lead.
One interesting thing is that Kyle Tucker struck out three times in a row with his Orbit cleats. After the Astros scored a run in the 5th inning, making it 5-1, Tucker came to the plate in the 6th inning and hit a home run making it 6-1. You’ll hear more about this later, but it was interestingly similar to Tucker ditching his Mother’s Day bat and hitting a home run against Detroit.
Arrighetti came back out in the 7th inning and he looked a little shaky. He gave up two singles to Joey Ortiz (the newest Astro killer), and Blake Perkins along with a walk in the middle to Sal Frelick. Arrighetti did strike out Chourio and pitched 6.1 IP on the day.
Abreu gave up a couple hits and Arrighetti gave up four runs when it could’ve only been one or two. Nonetheless, Arrighetti got a standing ovation as he exited, fulfilling a lifelong dream of his.
Meyers hit a single and Caratini was hit by a pitch. After two outs were made, Kyle Tucker hit his second home run of the day, making it 9-4! This was a really clutch hit and the Astros were able to ride Tayler Scott’s right arm to a victory both in the game and the series.
5/20: vs Angels 9-7 L
This was a difficult loss, one the Astros absolutely should’ve won. The Astros jumped out to a 6-1 lead, headlined by home runs by Jose Altuve and Mauricio Dubon.
Then everything collapsed in the 5th inning. Framber, who I mentioned earlier in this article, showed the bad side of his pitching.
He deviated from the game plan this inning and it did not go well. He gave up a 3-run home run to Nolan Schanuel, a 3-run home run to Logan O’Hoppe, and a solo home run to Jo Adell. He gave up six total hits in the inning and the Astros trailed 8-6 halfway through the game.
Rafael Montero gave up another home run to Zach Neto in the next inning and it was now 9-6. The Angels bullpen started setting the Astros down pretty quickly. Houston did rally in the 9th, scoring a run on an RBI single by Kyle Tucker. However, Carlos Estevez was able to recover and the Astros lost 9-7.
“I think he just kind of lost the game plan, lost it a little bit. He started making some pitches where I thought he was going to go a different way against certain hitters and then he couldn’t get back on track.” - Joe Espada on Framber’s outing on 5/20
5/21: vs Angels 6-5 W (10)
The Astros played a well-contested game against the Angels in the 2nd game of this series. Javier gave up a 2-run home run to Luis Rengifo in the 1st inning and the Astros trailed early.
In the bottom half of the 1st inning, both Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez hit back-to-back wall-scraping home runs, but it counted all the same, and it would be tied 2-2 after the one inning of play.
The Angels scored two runs in the fourth inning to retake the lead. In the bottom half of the 6th inning, Jeremy Pena doubled, and Big Jon Singleton Homerton hit another home run to tie the game.
In the next inning, Kevin Pillar hit a home run off Bryan Abreu to make it 5-4, and then Kyle Tucker hit a solo home run again to tie it again.
After Pressly threw a shutout eighth inning, Hader did what he did against Oakland again, throwing a shutout ninth inning, and then a shutout tenth inning. Jeremy Pena would hit a walk-off single to win the game and tie the series at one game apiece.
5/22: vs Angels 2-1 L
This was a tough, low-scoring loss for the Astros, and a bitter end to what was at the end of the day, a very successful homestand.
Hunter Brown was good. He went six innings, giving up two hits, and two runs, walking three and striking out three. The unfortunate part is that he gave up a 2-run home run to Kyren Paris, a guy who currently has a .138 career batting average, and had no home runs before that at-bat. Again, a very good start by Hunter Brown, it was just a tough result for him and the ballclub.
In the bottom half of the inning, Jake Meyers walked, and Mauricio Dubon hit an RBI double scoring a run for the Astros. Dubon would be thrown out at third, trying to stretch a double into a triple. The Astros were unable to score another run and were almost completely shut down by Tyler Anderson, who threw eight innings, giving up one run. The Astros got set down 1-2-3 in the 9th inning by a different Luis Garcia and Houston finished the homestand at 7-3.
What It All Means
It was a disappointing way for the Astros’ homestand, this homestand was a net good in the end. For most of the games, their starters looked good, and their bullpen performed very well.
Kyle Tucker looks like a legitimate American League MVP candidate, Jeremy Peña’s batting average is above .320, Jake Meyers is having one of the best hitting stretches in his career, and we are hopefully seeing a resurgence of Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman (Alvarez has been decent but subpar for his standards).
Hopefully, the Astros can take a series from both the Athletics and Mariners, not only to further their divisional hopes, but also so I can make a sequel to this article called “Breaking down the Astros First Winning Homestand.”
What was your favorite moment during this homestand? Let us know in the comments below or tweet you answers to us @astronomic1.