Three numbers and Jesse Hahn shouldn’t like the Astros

The Astros offense, more times than not, will make opposing pitchers pay for their errors.

Thanks to a high-scoring affair that ultimately favored the Astros, the team now sits pretty with 53 wins on the season. Sure, it wasn’t the prettiest of wins in terms of pitching, but beggars can’t be choosers.

I do feel somewhat bad for Jesse Hahn, the A’s starting pitcher last night. The Astros won the game so this feeling is mitigated, fair or not, to a certain extent from my perspective. But this is a man’s livelihood that the Astros are wrecking in the past week or so.

15

Between last night in Houston and the previous Thursday in Oakland, the Astros have tagged Hahn with 15 earned runs, 16 total if you can’t the lone unearned run. In those two starts, the A’s pitcher has given up three home runs and three walks while striking out just one Houston batter. Oh, the two starts combined were four innings total.

Before Hahn faced the Astros unrelenting offensive juggernaut that we all know of today, he was actually putting together a respectable season.

3-4 W-L, 3.56 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 4.18 xFIP, 0.14 HR/9

Before Hahn’s last two starts, he only gave up one home run, hence the low HR/9. In his two recent starts, his HR/9 has jumped to 0.52. I must mention that Hahn also faced the Astros once before this season back on April 30th. He picked up the loss while surrendering three earned runs, four total, in Houston.

I wouldn’t fault him if he decided to pass on his next outing against the Astros.

17

The Astros offense, which I subtly hinted at above, took control of the game.

For example, all of the Astros batters recorded at least one hit. Six of those batters recorded at least two hits. And two of those batters, George Springer and Josh Reddick, recorded three hits. All in all, there were 17 hits total.

There were also five doubles and a leadoff homerun. The homerun, courtesy of Springer, now vaunted him into Astros history.

I hereby declare this the “Summer of George!”

3.44

Michael Feliz has continued to pick up the slack in the bullpen as the starting rotation regains its collective health. In a way, he has been the unsung hero of a group that includes Ken Giles, Chris Devenski and Will Harris.

For example, Feliz has lowered his ERA back down to a 3.44. Remember that he had a rough two-game stretch where he allowed six earned runs in just 2.1 innings. But he has followed that up with a stretch of two earned runs in his last 8.2 innings.

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While Feliz may draw not the attention like Devenski, Giles or Harris on a consistent basis, he makes the Astros a better baseball team. Without his services, the team’s bullpen could be one step closer to total burnout. And they still may be. But at least Feliz helps hold off the inevitable.

**Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and MLB.com**