Now that they’ve been honored at the White House for a second time, the Astros turn their attention to the Orioles, the best team in the American League, for a three-game series that begins Tuesday at Camden Yards.
Before going to Washington on Monday, a day off, the Astros escaped Yankee Stadium with a four-game split that included a 9-7 victory on Sunday. With the Yankees in their rear-view mirror, the Astros play a much more formidable opponent in Baltimore.
Dusty Baker will have his hands full with the Orioles because they lead the AL with a 70-42 record that includes a four-game winning streak. Since June 1, they’ve fashioned an AL-best 35-21 record. Since July 5, they’re an MLB-best 21-7. Something that makes their performance even more remarkable is that Baltimore has excelled despite questionable starting pitching.
The Astros are 64-49 and are 3.0 games behind the Rangers, who continue to hold down first place in the AL West. While the Astros tangle with the Orioles, the Rangers catch a break, taking their six-game winning streak to Oakland for three games, which they extended to seven by beating the A's 5-3 win on Monday. This should be the perfect time to put some distance between themselves and the Astros.
The Orioles have undergone an amazing transformation that began in 2019 when they hired two Jeff Luhnow proteges, Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal, as general manager and assistant general manager. Elias and Mejdal, the latter an analytics expert, took the blueprint they learned from Luhnow in Houston to Baltimore.
As Luhnow did with the Astros, Elias and Mejdal tore down the Major League roster and rebuilt it with shrewd decisions on high draft choices, smart moves in free agency and terrific coaching and managing. They hired manager Brandon Hyde in 2019, and together, they’ve done an exceptional job of rebuilding the organization, the same way the Astros did it.
Baltimore got a whiff of what it was like to win last season when the Orioles finished 83-79, and now they believe they can win a World Series even though their starting rotation isn’t that impressive, despite acquiring Jack Flaherty from the Cardinals at the trade deadline.
Against the Astros, Baltimore’s starting pitchers are Grayson Rodriguez (2-3, 6.09 ERA), Flaherty (8-6, 4.28) and Dean Kremer (10-4, 4.51). The pitchers benefit from having exceptional hitters and a terrific bullpen featuring closer Felix Bautista, who has 30 saves and a 0.85 ERA. He should bet some strong Cy Young consideration.
In the first game, Framber Valdez (9-7, 3.07) will try to become the second pitcher in history to throw consecutive no-hitters. His masterpiece against Cleveland was one walk short of being a perfect game. The Astros desperately need for Valdez to pitch well again after experiencing some post-All-Star break problems.
It seems as if Cristian Javier, the second-game starter, hasn’t won since the World Series, but he’s 7-2 with a 4.39 ERA. He’s been mostly awful for more than two months, but Baker won’t give up on a pitcher who was tremendous last season, especially in the playoffs and World Series.
Hunter Brown (8-7, 4.07) has put together back-to-back good outings after suffering through a mediocre stretch. He’ll start the third game on Thursday.
It’s interesting to note the Orioles, who lead the AL East by 4.5 games over the Rays, have an AL-best 44-33 record against teams with a .500 or better record. The Astros are 28-33. Nineteen teams, including nine in the AL, have a better record than the Astros against .500 or better teams. They didn’t improve that statistic against the Rays and Yankees, and now they take on the Orioles, who are even more dangerous.
Before the series even starts, there’s good news for the Astros. No, not first baseman Jon Singleton being promoted from Sugar Land – we’ll get to that later – but anyone who watches the Astros regularly knows how relieved they’ll be to not have to face Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish, even though they’ll never admit it.
Bradish tormented the Astros in 2022 and nobody else. In two starts against them, he pitched 17 innings, allowed four hits and no runs. He struck out 16. The Orioles won both games 2-0. Fortunately for the Astros, Bradish pitched Sunday against the Mets, contributing to Baltimore’s three-game sweep. Thank heaven for small favors, right?
As for Singleton, 31, he might fall on his face again, but oh what a story he’ll be if he can light up major-league pitching the way he did with the Space Cowboys. In 33 games, he hit 12 home runs and slashed .333/.446/.692 with a 1.138 OPS.
People like an underdog, a comeback story, and that’s Singleton, who’s playing in the major leagues for the first time since 2015 with the Astros, who signed him to a five-year, $10 million contract before he made an appearance with them. He’s been suspended, cut, played in the Mexican League, cut again and re-signed by the Astros. Everyone will wish him good luck.
Baker might continue to start Jose Abreu at first base even though he’s experiencing another terrible slump. With the White Sox, Abreu pounded the ball in August, but he’s been inept this month, to say the least. This month, Abreu is 2-for-19. He’s struck out nine times, walked once and scored one run. He doesn’t have an RBI during that stretch.
This season, Abreu has been mostly pitiful at the plate. He has 10 home runs and 56 RBIs. He’s slashed .237/.293/.348 with a .641 OPS. In 2022, his last year at Chicago, he was .304/.378/.446 with an .824 OPS. It’s going to be interesting to see if Baker continues to show confidence in Abreu or gives Singleton a chance.
Their best option at first base is catcher Yainer Diaz, but Baker doesn’t have confidence in him playing that position. Diaz has 14 home runs, 34 RBIs and hits .276/.294/.517 with an .811 OPS. He’ll continue to get some starts at DH and occasionally behind Martin Maldonado.
Ideally, the Astros will win two of three from the Orioles, but that might be too much to ask. The Rangers should sweep the A’s, and if the Astros lose two games at Camden Yards, that Ranger lead is going to grow at a time when they can least afford it.
(John McClain can be heard Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday on Sports Radio 610 and before every practice during training camp on Texans Radio. He also writes three columns a week and does two Houtopia Football Podcasts for SportsRadio610.com.)