Astros: Offense to face familiar foe in LHP Jaime Garcia

Left-handed pitchers are more scarce in major league baseball.

Even with a heavy dose at the beginning of the season, facing six left-handed starters, four different pitchers, in the first nine games of the regular season, the Houston Astros have only faced nine left-handed starters so far this season. With the Atlanta Braves LHP Jaime Garcia facing the Astros on May 10^th, let’s take a look at how the Astros have fared against left-handed starters this season.

How have the Astros offense fared against LHP?

In 50.2 innings of work against left-handed starters, the Astros have scored 16 earned runs on 39 hits and 21 walks, amounting to a 1.18 WHIP. Against the seven different starters, Astros hitters have struck out 42 times.

It is easy to see why the Astros were successful against certain left-handed starters. For example, Seattle Mariners LHP James Paxton opened his season facing the Astros in back-to-back starts. In his 13 innings of work, he shutout the Astros, giving up only six hits and three walks, striking out 13.

In comparison, the Astros roughed up LHP Ariel Miranda, the starter after Paxton in the Mariners rotation, in his first two outings of the year, giving up six earned runs on 12 hits and five walks in 10.2 innings of work. The problem? Miranda gave up three home runs in those two starts.

The last left-handed starter the Astros faced was Texas Rangers LHP Alex Claudio on May 2nd. Making a spot start, the Rangers pitcher gave up three runs on four hits, including home runs by 2B Jose Altuve and Marwin Gonzalez, striking out one in four innings of work. The Astros ended up winning the game 8-7.

Next, the Astros will face a familiar foe in Garcia.