https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK0idxdpjNQ
Ken Giles has been terrible this season, and is one of the big reasons that the Astros have started off the season so poorly. What makes it worse is that at least one of the people traded for him, Vince Velasquez, is pitching like a strong rotation piece thus far this season.
In 2018, Giles has a 4.76 E.R.A. and has continued to be unreliable in the ninth inning, or whenever he pitches in any game. Despite allowing only one walk(shockingly) and striking out 15 so far this season, no Astros fan feels comfortable with Ken Giles at any point in any game.
In my opinion, Giles needs to just chill out when he’s on the mound. If you’ve watched him pitch, he gets really pumped up after any out, especially strikeouts. That would be fine if he didn’t implode, especially mentally, whenever anything bad happens. I believe that if someone is brave enough to confront him and tell him to just pitch, and relax while out on the mound, then we would see a much better version of Ken Giles. If this doesn’t happen, the Astros front office will be forced to make a change, since through this point in the season, closer is really the only glaring hole on the roster, aside from maybe a solid left handed reliever.
The rotation has been stellar to say the least, with the worst piece E.R.A. wise being Lance McCullers who is sporting a 3.7ish E.R.A. and has only had two sub-par starts this season, and has given up a huge chunk of his runs on the season in those two bad starts. Through 50 games, this was the best rotation in terms of strikeouts and runs allowed in the live ball era, which is absolutely incredible, and is a huge reason why the team has the highest run differential by far in the MLB(+123, next closest is around 80) which has really hidden the fact that the offense has not been as great as last season. With the offense picking things up lately since the demotion of Jake Marisnick and the call up of Tony Kemp, the only thing missing is a lock down 9th inning guy.
The Astros last night scored early on a two run homer in the first inning from Carlos Correa, who had been in a slump of late and has seen his average drop to .260 after having an amazing start to the season. McCullers gave up two runs, but besides that he was his usual unhittable self. Will Harris threw 1 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball, Hector Rondon continued his bounce back season with 1/3 innings without a run, and then Giles came in and managed to get three outs. Despite two quick outs, Giles in typical Giles’ fashion, gave up a hit and a walk, and needed a fine play in left center on a line drive to seal the victory. You could see him visibly shaken even after the two runners got on and multiple pitches missing the strike zone in a row, but a quick mound visit from Carlos Correa to calm him down led to the third out and an Astros victory over the best team record wise in baseball.
Steven Wright pitched the last three innings for the Red Sox after Drew Pomeranz gave up 4 runs in 5 innings of work. Wright was unhittable when he managed to get his knuckleball into the strike zone. Multiple balls past the catcher and some lucky hits gave the Astros a chance to tack on some insurance runs, but they were unable to do so.
The Astros bullpen needed a solid performance like this after a rough road trip in Cleveland and New York. Houston blew an 8-3 lead in the ninth inning in Cleveland, ultimately losing in extra innings despite being given another lead on an Evan Gattis home run. They again blew a lead, 5-3, in New York that ended with a Gleyber Torres RBI single off of Brad Peacock, who has struggled himself of late, but still has a 2.61 E.R.A. in the young season. Collin McHugh may be the most surprising piece in the bullpen after losing his rotation spot to Charlie Morton(who has been one of the best starters in the MLB this season) as he has begun the season with a sub 1.00 E.R.A. and is always ready to come in for multiple innings if a starter doesn’t manage to go deep into any particular contest.
Friday night may be one of, if not the best, pitching matchups in the young season. Gerrit Cole, with his 2.05 E.R.A. in his first season in Houston, faces off against Chris Sale. Expect a lot of strikeouts and a low scoring game tonight, which could come down again to the bullpens.