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McCullers threw five innings in the loss. He was charged with seven runs (five earned), allowing six hits, a pair of home runs and four walks. He has a 6.75 ERA through five starts totaling 25\u2153 innings. Following the latest, McCullers pointed to the first inning as an area requiring a fix.<\/p>\n
\u201cStuff\u2019s good,\u201d McCullers said. \u201cI think it just boils down to: I\u2019ve got to control the first inning better. It\u2019s really nothing more than that. It\u2019s not a stuff thing, it\u2019s not a game plan thing, it\u2019s not a health thing. It\u2019s just simply got to do a better job controlling the first inning.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his previous start against St. Louis, McCullers allowed two first-inning runs on two hit batsmen, a walk and a single. Before that, in Seattle, he issued a leadoff walk prior to a two-run home run by Cal Raleigh. In a scoreless first April 5 against the A\u2019s, he navigated two walks and a hit and threw 20 pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter the runs or how they come across or whatever the case, you get down early and you\u2019re just flipping the lineup, you\u2019re just making it tough on yourself as a pitcher,\u201d McCullers said. \u201cThe last three games I\u2019ve done a nice job settling in as the game\u2019s gone on, found a way to make it to the fifth, sixth inning. It\u2019s just a tough hole to climb out of and a tough spot to navigate a game as a starting pitcher.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It has put McCullers\u2019 offense in a hole in each of his last three starts, as well. Houston entered Friday\u2019s game with the highest OPS and averaging the most runs per game among American League teams, but falling behind early can increase the pressure on any lineup. That the Yankees brought the lowest team ERA in the majors into this series in Houston only enhanced the hazard in that formula.<\/p>\n
Friday, the Astros trailed 3-0 before they took an at-bat. New York\u2019s offense entered the game with the majors\u2019 lowest swing rate and sixth-lowest chase rate. Astros manager Joe Espada noted pre-game his pitching staff\u2019s need to \u201ccontrol the strike zone\u201d against a lineup that is \u201cvery precise when they swing the bats\u201d and \u201clike to slug\u201d when they do.<\/p>\n
McCullers, at the outset, did not. Trent Grisham drew a walk to open the game. Aaron Judge followed with another. They saw 12 combined pitches and swung once. Cody Bellinger singled on the Yankees\u2019 second swing of the game, loading the bases. McCullers then induced two ground balls he needed, but one yielded no outs due to Altuve\u2019s errant flip to second base.<\/p>\n
The other did produce a double play, started by McCullers. But he could not put Jazz Chisholm Jr. away after getting to two strikes. Chisholm lined a full-count cutter for a two-run single. The 30-pitch inning was McCullers\u2019 most strenuous of the game by far. He did work into the sixth for the first time since his season debut against Boston but departed in a 6-2 deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kept pitching,\u201d Espada said. \u201cI thought the use of the fastball today was better \u2026 But he needs to continue to be aggressive. I think for Lance it\u2019s being ahead. Once he\u2019s ahead he can expand and he can set the tone. But if you\u2019re behind in the count it can be really hard to execute and get people out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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McCullers said he \u201cfelt like I mixed and matched pretty well\u201d with his fastballs against a lineup with six left-handed hitters. He threw more cutters his first time through the order and more sinkers the second time. The Yankees did not swing much, offering at 31 of 92 pitches he threw, and chased just five pitches outside the zone. The 16 balls they put in play averaged a 95.4 mph exit velocity.<\/p>\n
Ryan McMahon hit a cutter the other way into the first row of the Crawford Boxes in the second inning. Chisholm sent a changeup into the right-field seats in the fourth. Ben Rice doubled on a sinker to open the sixth inning and scored on Giancarlo Stanton\u2019s groundball single, which ended McCullers\u2019 night. The Astros remain winless in his last four starts.<\/p>\n
McCullers\u2019 first month is only part of a broader issue. The Astros\u2019 injury-riddled rotation entered Friday with the second-highest ERA in the majors. Five pitchers who have made multiple starts for them have an ERA of at least 6.50. McCullers\u2019 season debut against Boston is one of their four quality starts in 27 games. Overall, the Astros have allowed six or more runs in 17 games amid a 10-17 start.<\/p>\n
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Stability must come from somewhere. Spencer Arrighetti\u2019s first two starts have been encouraging. Peter Lambert\u2019s outing in Cleveland held promise. That the Astros are discussing possibly stretching out Kai-Wei Teng, their most reliable reliever so far, illustrates their need for production from starters. Perhaps McCullers\u2019 stated focus can be the first step toward providing more.<\/p>\n
\u201cClean the first inning up, do a better job controlling the first, and I think everything falls into place just fine,\u201d McCullers said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. reacts after New York Yankees’ Ben Rice’s RBI into a fielder’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-265527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}