ANAHEIM, Calif. — After baseball’s highest-paid bullpen blew its 11th save and squandered a sweep, Jose Altuve accentuated a positive. His Houston Astros arrived in Anaheim seeking momentum. Losing 9-7 to the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday might have momentarily sapped it.
“If you see the big picture, we took two out of three, and that’s, for me, really important,” Altuve countered.
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Stacking series wins is imperative for a team trying to claw back into contention. Houston has won two straight. Five of its next six are against opponents that entered Sunday at or under .500, starting with three games this week against the San Francisco Giants.
Here are three takeaways from Houston’s series win against the Angels.
Panic vs. protection
Starting 7-19 put manager Joe Espada and pitching coach Josh Miller in a precarious position. To climb back into contention, Houston has to chase any win within its grasp. Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly and closer Josh Hader are the best options to finish them out of the bullpen.
Saturday should have been a reprieve for all of them. Abreu is the American League’s most-relied-upon reliever, a man who awoke Saturday with 31 appearances across Houston’s first 64 games — an unsustainable workload for a pitcher this club cannot afford to lose.
During the 65th, the Astros built a four-run advantage after six innings. Espada entrusted Rafael Montero with the seventh inning. Montero managed two outs before Nolan Schanuel lifted a solo home run into the right-field seats and created a save situation.
Montero’s walk to Luis Rengifo forced Abreu to enter and illustrated a predicament Houston must avoid if it has any hopes of keeping this bullpen healthy and intact. Abreu threw 15 pitches he shouldn’t have, furthering a workload that feels unsustainable for the next four months.
Abreu made a career-high 72 appearances last season. Only eight relievers had more. Abreu is on pace for 71 this season and has already collected more than three outs in five outings. He did that just six times last season.
“He has grown. He has seen how our other veteran relievers have gotten ready in the past,” Espada said. “He’s made adjustments to his (ways) to get ready for games. He’s a strong kid, and at the same time, we have to protect him and be smart about how much we use him.”
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Abreu had not pitched since Tuesday. Using him Saturday to face the tying and go-ahead runs is wholly defensible. Using Pressly in the eighth inning — after Houston scored twice in the top half and stretched its lead to five — is far more curious.
Pressly threw 25 pitches, a workload that got magnified Sunday when Houston’s bullpen had to cover four innings of a two-run game. Abreu and Pressly pitched again. Within 17 pitches, Pressly gave away the two-run lead he inherited, inflating his ERA to 5.40 across 27 appearances.
Heading into the bottom of the 9th all tied up 💪pic.twitter.com/XdIPVonCSP
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) June 9, 2024
“We’re going to continue to rely on him,” Espada said. “He’s one of our guys. He’s a big part of our bullpen. I believe in him. He has gotten big outs for us in the past, and he will.”
Pressly is paid to execute without excuses, but it’s difficult to separate Saturday’s suspicious management from Sunday’s implosion. Pressly wasn’t guaranteed to pitch a scoreless eighth Sunday if Espada used someone else Saturday, though a rested reliever is generally more productive.
Shawn Dubin warmed up alongside Pressly throughout the top of the eighth inning Saturday. If the Astros can’t trust Dubin to protect a five-run lead against one of the American League’s worst teams, it’s worth wondering which scenarios they do have faith he can handle and what value he brings to this roster.
Whether it’s displaying more faith in lower-leverage relievers like Dubin or Tayler Scott, Montero pitching more like a man making $11.5 million or expanding the small circle of bullpen trust, Houston must discover a balance between pursuing wins and preserving arms. It cost the club on Sunday.
Altuve’s aggression
Analyzing Altuve’s offensive approach is almost impossible. He is an anomaly in every way, a free swinger with fabulous bat-to-ball skills who can mask poor pitch selection. Altuve ambushes first pitches better than most hitters in the sport, aggression fans appreciate when he’s doing well.
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A miserable May threatened to test that patience — for everyone other than those who know Altuve best. He managed a .537 OPS and four extra-base hits across 123 plate appearances, paring his season OPS from 1.010 to .795. Twenty-eight strikeouts and a 45.7 percent chase rate prolonged two concerning trends.
“Jose always goes through stretches where he’s more aggressive than he usually is,” Espada said Saturday. “He’s hitting the ball hard, just balls aren’t finding holes for him. He is an aggressive hitter. That’s the Jose Altuve I’ve seen since he got to the big leagues, so I’m not going to expect anything else other than Jose being aggressive and looking for the pitches he can handle.”
Sunday, Altuve struck four hits, including his first home run since May 20. Fittingly, it came on the first pitch.
Jose Altuve goes deep!
The @Astros have scored 4 runs with two outs to take the lead! pic.twitter.com/ZVWcwFzkeT
— MLB (@MLB) June 9, 2024
Altuve is still on pace to strike out more than he has in any season in his major-league career. His 38.3 percent chase rate this year is 7 percentage points higher than his lifetime average.
Altuve is never going to temper his aggression, but he acknowledged after Sunday’s game that pressing has perhaps heightened his anxiousness. “Trusting myself more” is how he replied when asked what changed Sunday.
“When you get in between and panic about hitting, good things aren’t going to happen. Today, I just went up there and looked for my pitch, trusted my hands and got good results,” he said. “I’ve been in the middle of somewhere, trying to find myself. Obviously, some games good, some games not so good, but hopefully this game can take me to where I want to be and stay consistent the rest of the year.”
Yainer Diaz’s days off
At first, Diaz did not want to acknowledge it, but a couple of off days did him some good. His introduction to everyday duties is different from what other young players experience.
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The volume of information and heightened importance Houston places on its everyday catcher can’t be overstated. Espada often reminds Diaz that defense and guiding his pitchers through a game are of foremost importance. Offense is a footnote.
Still, Diaz’s dwindling production prompted Espada to sit him for two consecutive games (June 1-2). The skipper believed Diaz could benefit from a mental reset. Diaz is 8-for-25 with four home runs since.
“I think there might have been a little bit of anxiety there, a little bit of me trying to do too much to help the team, just getting out of the player that I know I am,” Diaz said Friday through an interpreter. “I definitely feel like I’m hitting the ball a lot better now and starting to calm myself at the plate.”
Diaz credited his resurgence to better pitch recognition and calming himself down at the plate. Like Altuve, Diaz is an aggressive hitter who can sometimes expand the strike zone in hopes of utilizing his elite contact ability. Picking the correct pitches to chase — and ones he’s more likely to do damage against — is paramount.
“I can give myself a chance to just look at a pitch in a certain location and still have a chance to make good contact, which before was pretty hard for me to do,” Diaz said. “Just trying to be more calm and doing what I know I can do and just letting the ball travel a little more, let the ball a little bit more toward me so I can see the trajectory of the ball.”
(Photo of Jose Altuve: Kiyoshi Mio / USA Today)