The second road trip of the season (4-5 on the first one) sees the Blue Jays visit two of 2024's division champs.
Nobody said it was supposed to be easy.
The Astros aren't off to a great start, mainly because they're not scoring a lot of runs. Obviously, they miss Kyle Tucker. More to the point, Yordan Alvarez is off to a slow start. But that still beats what's been happening with Christian Walker and Yainer Diaz, who have both been bad, bad, very bad.
Tucker isn't coming back, but none of those other things seem likely to continue much longer. Alvarez has always been - well, he hasn't exactly been a slow starter. It's just that he generally gets better and better the deeper we get into the season. It's still April, which gives one hope that he might not inflict too much pain this week. He might not. He's still Yordan Alvarez, and hurting pitchers is what he does.
Houston is surviving because their pitching has been very good. The Jays saw Hunter Brown last July, and didn't enjoy themselves - Brown tossed six innings of two-hit shutout. Yariel Rodriguez was almost as good, allowing just two hits while working into the seventh inning. Trouble was, one of those hits was a solo homer by Jeremy Pena. (Yordan Alvarez added a two-run blast in the ninth off Zach Pop.)
Still, two hits! That's two more hits than they managed the last time they faced Ronel Blanco down at Enron Memorial, when Blanco tossed the game's first, and only, April Fool's No-Hitter. I noted at the time that this was 17th no-hitter for the Houston franchise, and only three other teams - all of whom had been around at least half a century longer - could account for more. They even got a couple of no-hitters when they were the Houston Colt 45s.
And they're 16-1 when their pitcher throws a no-hitter, so it's usually worked pretty well for them.
Matchups
Mon 21 Apr - Gausman (2-1, 2.49) vs Brown (2=1, 1.50)
Tue 22 Apr - Bassitt (2-0, 0.77) vs Blanco (1-2, 6.48)
Wed 23 Apr - Francis (2-2, 3.13) vs Gusto (2-1, 3.18)
Nobody said it was supposed to be easy.
The Astros aren't off to a great start, mainly because they're not scoring a lot of runs. Obviously, they miss Kyle Tucker. More to the point, Yordan Alvarez is off to a slow start. But that still beats what's been happening with Christian Walker and Yainer Diaz, who have both been bad, bad, very bad.
Tucker isn't coming back, but none of those other things seem likely to continue much longer. Alvarez has always been - well, he hasn't exactly been a slow starter. It's just that he generally gets better and better the deeper we get into the season. It's still April, which gives one hope that he might not inflict too much pain this week. He might not. He's still Yordan Alvarez, and hurting pitchers is what he does.
Houston is surviving because their pitching has been very good. The Jays saw Hunter Brown last July, and didn't enjoy themselves - Brown tossed six innings of two-hit shutout. Yariel Rodriguez was almost as good, allowing just two hits while working into the seventh inning. Trouble was, one of those hits was a solo homer by Jeremy Pena. (Yordan Alvarez added a two-run blast in the ninth off Zach Pop.)
Still, two hits! That's two more hits than they managed the last time they faced Ronel Blanco down at Enron Memorial, when Blanco tossed the game's first, and only, April Fool's No-Hitter. I noted at the time that this was 17th no-hitter for the Houston franchise, and only three other teams - all of whom had been around at least half a century longer - could account for more. They even got a couple of no-hitters when they were the Houston Colt 45s.
And they're 16-1 when their pitcher throws a no-hitter, so it's usually worked pretty well for them.
Matchups
Mon 21 Apr - Gausman (2-1, 2.49) vs Brown (2=1, 1.50)
Tue 22 Apr - Bassitt (2-0, 0.77) vs Blanco (1-2, 6.48)
Wed 23 Apr - Francis (2-2, 3.13) vs Gusto (2-1, 3.18)
