{"id":356672,"date":"2026-07-01T02:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356672\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T02:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:34:18","slug":"houston-astros-nick-allens-return-timely-amid-latest-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356672\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Astros: Nick Allen’s return timely amid latest injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Astros<\/a> manager Joe Espada describes Nick Allen as his Swiss Army knife, and the infielder’s\u00a0return from the injured list couldn\u2019t have come at a better time.<\/p>\n

After being activated Monday<\/a> after being out since June 8 with a hamstring strain, Allen was in the starting lineup in place of Jeremy\u00a0Pe\u00f1a, who missed the game with a calf injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to (get healthy) as quick as possible and get back as soon as possible,\u201d said Allen, who had a single and a walk in three plate appearances in Monday\u2019s 5-4 loss to the Twins<\/a>. \u201cSo, I\u2019m excited to be back in the field. Body feels good and ready to rock, so I\u2019m just happy to be out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Espada said that Allen was originally going to play third Monday to give Isaac\u00a0Paredes a break but slid over to short.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s aware of his role, and does a really good job preparing,\u201d Espada said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Astros acquired Allen, 27, in November from Atlanta in a trade for Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a>. Allen played a career-high 135 games for the Braves in 2026 and was a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop.<\/p>\n

Allen has missed 34 games for the Astros with back spasms in April and the hamstring strain in June. When he\u2019s played this season \u2014 38 games among second, short and third \u2014 he has a slash line of .258\/.306 \/.333.<\/p>\n

Allen said his preparation for his return Monday was not impacted by\u00a0Pe\u00f1a\u2019s injury. Though he feels comfortable at shortstop, Allen said he hopes for Pe\u00f1a to return quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, we can get Jeremy back as soon as possible,\u201d Allen said. \u201cHe\u2019s a key piece to what this team\u2019s doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Allen and Raynel Delgado figure to see playing time at shortstop with\u00a0Pe\u00f1a out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be available and so if I can do that, then I\u2019m doing my job right,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI\u2019m just happy to be back, and wherever Joe needs me, I\u2019m ready to play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Astros manager Joe Espada describes Nick Allen as his Swiss Army knife, and the infielder’s\u00a0return from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-356672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356672","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=356672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}