Three numbers from the Astros’ home game disappointment

Well, Brad Peacock did not take flight in his start last night. To be fair, though, it just didn’t feel like the Astros night from the beginning.

The Astros starting rotation isn’t downright decimated, but it feels awfully close. Sure, there is Lance McCullers to lead the rotation going forward until Dallas Keuchel returns. Joe Musgrove could return on Monday. Mike Fiers has caught second life since his short-lived demotion to the bullpen. Charlie Morton is progressing, and Collin McHugh may return by the All-Star game.

Unfortunately for Houston, the rotation will be tested more times than not until it returns to full healthy. That’s just the reality when you rely upon Brad Peacock and David Paulino to give you quality innings every five days. In Peacock’s defense, though, he did pitch well in his previous outings so maybe this was just a blip on the radar.

49.7% win expectancy

The highest win expectancy that the Astros had last night was 47.8% in the first inning. It was all downhill from there.

Where to start in the misery?

• The starting pitching
• The relief pitching
• Wait, was Tony Sipp the only Astros pitcher to have a scoreless appearance last night?!
• All of the above

Honestly, the Astros pitching staff has been taxed as of late, especially the bullpen. And Peacock not having a good start only poured fuel on the fire. The Angels didn’t bury Houston with just an one inning barrage. They chipped away all night at the pitching staff. In conjunction with the offense, it is easy to see why Houston wasn’t favored at one point in last night’s loss in terms of win expectancy.

400 feet

The Astros offense scored four runs on eight hits and a walk last night. You can live with that if the pitching staff was on its game. They clearly weren’t.

The biggest disappointment about the Astros offense last night was seeing their 12-game streak of 5+ runs in a game snapped.

But another streak continues to live on following Alex Bregman‘s two-run shot that went 400 feet in the seventh inning.

The Astros have hit a home run 17-games in a row following Bregman’s dinger. I will take solace in this fact and treasure it until it ends, which very well could be tomorrow. But sometimes it is good to just take one day at a time.

-0.065 WPA

As you all know, Francis Martes was promoted to the Astros 25-man roster on Thursday as Keuchel went back on the disabled list. The Astros top prospect didn’t make an appearance in their last game of the latest road trip so fans had to wait until last night to catch a glimpse. It wasn’t the best of looks for Martes.

6/9/17 Pitching Line: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 2 SO, -0.065 WPA

You can likely chalk part of this rough performance to nerves as he is making his first major league start. After all, Martes was making his professional debut at the best level of professional baseball. It is perfectly understandable.

Next: Astros must add another left-handed reliever

On the other hand, Martes didn’t exactly have the best track record in Fresno this season (5.29 ERA in 32.1 innings). He likely needs more time in Triple-A before he is fully ready for the majors. Of course, I could be completely wrong and he pitches out of his mind for the rest of the season. I sincerely hopes he proves me wrong. I will gladly eat crow if that was the case.

**Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference**