After a disastrous weekend in Tampa Bay, the Astros return to Daikin Park on Tuesday to begin their final homestand of the regular season with a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals.
Houston was swept by the Rays and outscored 20-7 over the three games, culminating in Sunday’s 14-4 loss. The skid dropped the Astros back to .500 at 75-75 and cut their AL West lead over the Texas Rangers to one game with 12 games remaining. Houston owns the season tiebreaker over Texas.
Kansas City enters the series at 66-84 and in last place in the AL Central. For Houston, three games against a team well below .500 offer an opportunity to recover before the Atlanta Braves arrive for the final three games of the homestand.
Offense Needs to Wake Up
Houston’s pitching had begun to stabilize before Sunday’s blowout, but the offense remains a problem. The Astros have scored three runs or fewer in 21 of their last 36 games, putting enormous pressure on the pitching staff to make nearly every run hold up.
Yordan Alvarez returned Sunday after missing two games with a sore right ankle, giving the Astros their Triple Crown contender back for the homestand. Jeremy Peña, Christian Walker, and others will need to provide considerably more around him than they managed in Tampa Bay.
Brown and Wacha Set the Tone Tuesday
Hunter Brown gets the first chance to put the Tampa Bay series behind Houston. The right-hander enters Tuesday at 5-3 with a 3.52 ERA and will face Michael Wacha, who has been one of Kansas City’s steadier starters this season at 9-8 with a 3.25 ERA.
With an Astros offense that has struggled to produce runs, Tuesday hardly looks like a matchup in which Houston can count on simply outslugging its opponent.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CT on Space City Home Network.
Javier Faces Lynch on Wednesday
Cristian Javier takes the mound Wednesday with a 2-5 record and 5.50 ERA, making his start one of the more uncertain pieces of the series for Houston. Kansas City counters with left-hander Daniel Lynch IV, who enters at 5-5 with a 3.52 ERA.
The Astros will need considerably more support for Javier than they have been providing their pitching staff lately, particularly against a starter who has allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine innings this season.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CT on Space City Home Network.
Thursday Remains Incomplete
Kansas City is scheduled to send Seth Lugo to the mound for Thursday’s finale. Lugo enters at 7-8 with a 4.99 ERA, making this, on paper, the most inviting of the Royals’ three pitching matchups. Houston has not yet announced its starter.
The finale begins at 6:15 p.m. CT and will air nationally on FOX.
AL West Race Continues
While Houston hosts Kansas City, Texas opens a three-game home series Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox. The Astros enter the series with a one-game division lead and own the season tiebreaker over the Rangers.
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