Astros’ Luke Gregerson had a horribly bad day on the mound

Luke Gregerson had a terrible appearance on Saturday for the Astros, but he is still a proven veteran.

We’ve all had a really bad day. They made a movie about some kid named Alexander demonstrating that bad days do exist. Astros setup man, Luke Gregerson, had a really bad day Saturday. Gregerson had some really great days while pitching for team USA as the closer this Spring. That team won the WBC Championship with Gregerson. Before Saturday night’s game, Gregerson had some good games this year and in the WBC.

Gregerson helped preserve the leads in the first two games and keep it close in game 3. He looked the part as the closer in waiting by not allowing any runs to score. Gregerson probably upset a lot of Astros fans when he gave up six runs in 1/3 of an inning. That blown hold robbed Dallas Keuchel of a win after his second fabulous effort to start the season. His blown hold sent a lot of Astros fans home cursing his name.

We did experience 2015!

As a writer, I understand that bad games happen. There are days where nothing seems to go your way. As we discussed on Talking Stros on Sports Talk 790 yesterday, he is a proven veteran reliever. One caller thought that Brandon had not watched Game 4 of the 2015 ALDS versus the Royals. Trust me, to steal to Field of Dreams quote, “we did experience 2015.” We were all there when advancing to the ALCS was in our grasp, but the Royals ripped our hearts out.

That’s how I felt on Saturday as I watched as the Astros coughed up the one run lead. While there was not as much riding on Saturday’s game, it still brought back memories of that game. Jake Kaplan reported that Gregerson left the clubhouse Saturday night without talking to the media. Are you that surprised? What good would have come from it?

Worst game of his career?

To his credit, he has taken the heat on several occasions after bad appearances. According to Jake Kaplan, in 561 regular season games, this was the first time that he allowed more than four runs. Kaplan points out that he only allowed four runs once, it was back in 2009. As I said earlier, he has a proven track record. Has he been the best closer over his career, maybe not?

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Had Gregerson stayed to talk to the media, he probably would have said something he would have regretted. As a teacher, you learn about cooling down time. It was probably better to go home and deal with the problems the next day. Does this make A.J. Hinch gunshy about putting him in to preserve a lead again?

Hinch told reporters that it’s still early and Gregerson did have an abbreviated spring training by competing in the WBC. There was no chance that Gregerson would be back out to pitch yesterday, but maybe in today’s game versus the Mariners. Gregerson now has a 16.20 ERA for the season, but all that damage was done in Saturday’s game. With time, his ERA should stabilize back to normal.

Next: Dallas Keuchel provides encouraging results.

As we said on the Talking Stros broadcast yesterday, we are more worried about Jandel Gustave than Gregerson. As I left the game Saturday night, I was disappointed with the final results. But, Gregerson will bounce back. Going back to Talking Stros, Brandon told the caller to call back at the end of the season, and we will see who was right. Tune into iHeart radio every Sunday to listen to Talking Stros after the Tenth Inning Show on Sports Talk 790.

***Stats from Baseball-Reference***