The Houston Astros are making their way home today for their first home game since their season-opening seven-game homestand.
After ending their homestand with a five-game winning streak, things have gone downhill since they hit the road.
With only one win against the West Sacramento Athletics, the Astros have now racked up an eight-game losing streak, including a loss to the A’s and being swept by the Colorado Rockies and the Seattle Mariners.
It took two games for the Astros to warm up at the start of the season, but once they had that first win, they were on a hot streak that they just could not seem to keep while on the road.
The Astros are coming home with a few obstacles they did not have at the start of the season. Once again, the injury list is growing and hurting the team’s performance.
After spending the better part of the offseason bolstering their pitching staff, one pitcher has gone down after another, and there are only a few left to pick up the slack.
Pitching staff anchor Hunter Brown is out with a shoulder injury, as well as Cristian Javier, leaving more work than intended for the bullpen, and the effects of that are already showing.
Tatsuya Imai, who was there to pick up the slack, had a few rough outings and put up some shaky numbers before being sent home from Seattle due to fatigue.
On top of that, Josh Hader is recovering from left biceps tendinitis after being shut down earlier this year, and Nate Pearson continues to recover from right elbow surgery.
So who is left?
That leaves Lance McCullers Jr. holding things together until others are ready to return to the rotation. However, he cannot handle that workload on his own.
They have also been starting Cody Bolton and Mike Burrows, and today Colton Gordon will start.
Gordon was recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land on April 13 due to the plethora of injuries and will be making his debut at home against the Colorado Rockies.
Bolton and Burrows have not been holding their own on the mound, per MLB:
April 13: Mike Burrows (RHP)
1–3, 6.55 ERA, 18 SO
April 12: Cody Bolton (RHP)
0–1, 5.40 ERA, 11 SO
While the Astros have had no issues scoring runs, the pitching staff is holding them back and posting some of the worst numbers in the league.