Ronel Blanco takes the mound Friday night for his fourth start since coming back from Tommy John surgery, and on paper, it's not pretty: 0-1, a 7.36 ERA, and a 1.30 WHIP through his first three starts back, per MLB.
But that ERA isn't really telling the whole story. The strikeout ability is still very much there, he had eight punchouts in his very first start back, a great sign considering he was gone for over a year, recovering from one of the hardest injuries to come back from in professional baseball.
The real issue has been length. Blanco hasn't gotten through six innings in any of his three starts back, topping out around 82 to 86 pitches each time. Not shocking, given the circumstances. Coming back from that kind of surgery takes time, and teams manage workload carefully early on. Beyond that, he also needs time to find his footing and get back into the flow of things.
After a rough first half of the season on the mound, the Astros' pitching staff has taken a turn in the second half. Houston's staff as a whole has actually been excellent lately, posting the best WHIP in baseball (0.89) to start August, per Yahoo Sports. So Blanco's rough numbers haven't really hurt the team much, the rest of the staff has held things together while he finds his rhythm again.
There's a bigger reason this start matters too. Houston passed on adding pitching at the deadline, betting instead on health, specifically Blanco and Hayden Wesneski coming back healthy from Tommy John. Every start Blanco makes right now is a real test of whether that bet pays off. If Blanco can give the Astros length and a solid performance, that's a good sign they made the right call ahead of the deadline.
Facing a hot Padres lineup and a proven arm like Ray tonight is a good test for Houston. If Blanco can find some length and keep the damage down, that's a real step forward for the rotation.
This is a close matchup between two teams playing well right now, the real question is whether Blanco can find some length against a tougher arm in Ray. Houston's been finding ways to win lately, and Friday night is a good chance to keep that going.
