Astros Get Run Out of Their Own Ballpark in Embarrassing 18-3 Loss

The Houston Astros were absolutely destroyed by the Los Angeles Angels Thursday night, allowing the worst team in the league to take the series from the division leader.

How did that happen?

Aside from Peter Lambert having his worst start of the season and his career, giving up a career-high of nine runs on eight hits over 3.2 innings, Bryan King came in and managed to make things worse. Tatsuya Imai gave things a shot as well and contributed to the damage right before the Astros threw in the towel and put LaMonte Wade Jr. on the hill, and even LaMonte Wade Jr gave up a home run.

Pitching has been the biggest struggle all season for Houston, and Thursday night was a brutal display of that. A rough night, especially for Lambert, who has been the one constant, the one pitcher giving length and consistency. At least he was due for a rough start. King and Imai, on the other hand, have already had their fair share of poor performances.

So here is a breakdown of what might have been the ugliest game of the season for Major League Baseball.

At first it was looking just fine for Houston. They had a couple runs, capitalized on a few errors made by the Angels, and it was a one- or two-run game. But that only lasted through the second inning.

Then the nightmare began.

Again, Peter Lambert had the worst game of his career, and none of the relief did any favors.

Some players had the game of their lives, but none of them were in an Astros jersey. Almost every player in an Angels jersey made it on base. But the stars of the show were Zach Neto and Vaughn Grissom. Neto especially had an incredible game.

He had an incredible career high of seven RBIs. He went 5 for 6, two runs, a three-run home run, and a double for a total of seven RBIs. The other 11 runs for the Angels were just the icing on the cake.

Any great play or great catch was completely overshadowed by the 18 runs for the Angels. Not at all what you would expect from the AL West leader.

Possibly the most embarrassing loss in all of Major League Baseball for the 2026 season, right up there with the Mariners being blown out of the water 22-0 by the Brewers earlier this week.

Maybe the Mariners should send the Astros a thank-you note for giving the media another largely embarrassing loss to help them forget their own?

Now the Astros face the A's, who are now at the bottom of the AL West. The assumption would be that the division leader would beat the team that is 15 games back, but clearly not a safe assumption. So, in all honesty, who knows what to expect from this upcoming series.