Astros: Red Hot Marwin Gonzalez Provides Surge for Struggling Offense

Marwin Gonzalez has been swinging one of the hottest bats in all of baseball since the start of June. With the Astros struggling to score as of late, here’s hoping the success he’s found is contagious.

The Houston Astros offensive production has declined over the past six contests. Since their sweep of the Oakland Athletics, in which they scored 23 runs in three games, the Astros have been held to three runs or less in four of their last six games, with the other two games producing four and five run efforts.

Utility man Marwin Gonzalez however has seen his offensive numbers soar over his last 10 games in his fifth season. As on June 1, Gonzalez is batting .351 (13-for-37) with three doubles and four runs scored. While most of his hits are singles, he continues to get on base, even if he is usually stranded by his teammates. For the season, he’s averaged .253/.295/.392 with 13 RBIs, 11 doubles and four home runs and is also 8-for-10 on the base paths.

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It’s not the first time Gonzalez has found himself in a good rhythm this year. In his last 10 games in April, Gonzalez hit .391 (9-for-23) to bring his average to .222 after a dismal start to the 2016 campaign. He also crushed four doubles, three RBIs and a solo homer.

Gonzalez got on another hot streak from May 5-14, hitting .341 though those 10 games. He recorded multiple hits in five of those games, helping raise his average from .185 to .253, while driving in eight men with six extra base hits. Gonzalez recorded a hit in nine of those 10 games and cleared the fences twice. One of those long balls, a two-run shot to give the Astros a 5-3 win over the Cleveland Indians in 16 innings at home.

With the injury to Carlos Correa, Gonzalez has taken over the reigns at shortstop in his absence. While playing one of the toughest positions in the game, he’s gone 5-for-11 in those two games and on the defensive end, he helped turn a game-ending double play in the bottom of the ninth inning against Tampa Bay to secure a 4-3 win.

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Gonzalez has steadily provided the Astros with a variety of flexibility in the field. Whether it be first base, third base or shortstop as of late, he’s been valuable, even more so with his bat recently. If the Astros can begin to find ways of driving in runners who can consistently get on, like Gonzalez, it would fix a lot of their scoring problems.

**Statistics provided by Baseball-Reference**