Joe Espada's overuse of Josh Hader might've led to Astros' demise in Wild Card series

Major disappointment still lingers for the Astros organization and their fans after the early exit from the 2024 postseason in the Wild Card round. Getting swept by the Detroit Tigers has left a bad taste in the city's mouth.

This is the earliest the Astros have been eliminated since 2016, a season where they did not make the playoffs in any capacity. The historic streak of reaching seven straight American League Championship Series is over, but the streak of home postseason losses has remarkably increased to seven. However, Game 2 looked to be within the Astros' reach after seven innings, as they held a 2-1 lead.

During the offseason, the Astros bolstered the back of the bullpen by signing closer Josh Hader to a five-year, $95 million deal. The idea was that once the Astros had a lead late, the top three relievers -- Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly, and Hader -- would put games away. It was supposed to be a lock once the Astros entered the late innings ahead. However, that was not the case in a postseason elimination game with the season on the line. Pressly and Hader, who combined for more than $125 million in total contracts for the Astros, did not get the job done. 

Pressly, who has previously been absolute nails in the postseason and had over 22 straight scoreless outings in the playoffs, came out shaky in the eighth inning.  After getting the first out, the right-hander gave up back-to-back singles to Kerry Carpenter and Matt Vierling. The tying run scored on a wild pitch, something that catcher Yainer Diaz should’ve taken care of. Pressly regrouped and struck out the batter, but walked Colt Keith before exiting the game in favor of Hader.

The Astros closer just needed one out to send the game to the ninth inning, but he instead walked Spencer Torkelson to load the bases before the biggest at-bat of the game vs. Andy Ibañez. Hader had two strikes on Ibañez before throwing another fastball, which resulted in a bases-clearing double down the left field line to effectively put the game out of reach for Houston. 

Did Josh Hader have to be used in Astros' Game 1 loss?

While there is blame to go around on the players, it also spotlighted a debatable decision from Astros manager Joe Espada to pitch Hader the day before in Game 1 down 3-0. This was a situation where there may not have been a need to use your best relief pitcher. You can certainly make a case that Espada overused Hader for the Wild Card round. Not only was he pitching back-to-back days, but he had to go 1.1 innings in his second outing. Trying to get a four-out save in a one-run situation with two runners on base after pitching the day before could be considered a bit taxing. However, he absolutely needed to be used in the second game. Hader did not need to be used down 3-0 in the ninth in Game 1, and should have been saved for a crucial moment the next game.

That moment certainly arrived, and maybe the performance from Hader would have been better if he had not been used the previous day. The Astros had other arms to turn to, or could have used Caleb Ferguson for the ninth, but Espada chose to put too much on Hader's shoulders instead. The $95 million man certainly did not perform and do his job, but as a manager, you have to put your players in the best situation to succeed, and that may have not been done in this case.