<\/p>\n
Mike Burrows allowed 10 runs after being staked to a big lead Monday in Washington, leading to the inevitable question whether the\u00a0Astros can withstand his struggles amid a playoff push.<\/p>\n
Greg Fiume\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve runs the bases after hiting a three-run home run during the second inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n
John McDonnell\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Washington Nationals’ James Wood is greeted at home plate by his teammates after hitting a grand slam home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n
John McDonnell\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Washington Nationals’ James Wood watches his grand slam home run go over the center field fence during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n
John McDonnell\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Houston Astros first baseman Christian Walker, left, fields a ground ball to put out Washington Nationals’ Daylen Lile (not shown) during the second inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n
John McDonnell\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Houston Astros starting pitcher Mike Burrows, left, greets teammate Jose Altuve at the dugout after Altuve hit a three-run home run during the second inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n
John McDonnell\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Houston Astros starting pitcher Mike Burrows throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n
John McDonnell\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Washington Nationals center fielder Jacob Young misjudges an RBI double hit by Houston Astros’ Christian Walker during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell)<\/p>\n
John McDonnell\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014 In perhaps his final start before the All-Star break, a trying season for Mike Burrows hit a low point. The Houston Astros<\/a> staked the right-hander to a five-run lead in the third inning Monday night at Nationals Park. They trailed by the time he departed in the fifth. His 17th start with the Astros was also his shortest. None of the previous 16 produced a more lopsided line.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just a tough day,\u201d Burrows said, after the Astros\u2019 12-11 loss to Washington<\/a>. \u201cJust felt like I let our team down. They gave me a good lead and kind of spoiled it. Some of the hits felt like they were in bad spots, where our guys weren\u2019t, and then there were a couple pitches that just missed, missed by a little bit, and I got beat. So just a tough one.\u201d<\/p>\n In the first half, those outweighed the alternative for Burrows. Flashes of the starter Houston envisioned fortifying its rotation upon trading for him have subsided into struggles, none more glaring than his start against the Nationals. Roughed up for 10 runs, seven of them earned, Burrows saw his ERA jump to 5.99, the second-highest mark among qualified major-league starters.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Whether a club attempting to claw its way back to .500 can sustain that type of production in its rotation every five or six days seems a legitimate question. A collective effort between Burrows and the Astros<\/a> to bring about better results is ongoing yet has eluded any semblance of consistency, inviting wonder about where the collaboration can turn to next.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s still a young pitcher, so we\u2019ve got to continue to help him through this process,\u201d manager Joe Espada said. \u201cBecause he\u2019s got the stuff to do it, there\u2019s no doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n Astros officials have backed Burrows as the 26-year-old navigates his first season in a new organization, and so far his first full season in the majors. General manager Dana Brown, who dealt two prospects for Burrows<\/a>, perhaps influencing his bullishness toward the right-hander, stated last month that \u201cthere\u2019s a learning curve for these guys\u201d and \u201cwe just have to get him to make adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n Burrows has detailed those he is attempting, including raising his arm slot and lower-half mechanics. He moved to the bullpen for one series last month to work on those and catch a \u201cbreather\u201d amid a rising workload. In his first outing back, Burrows threw six innings of one-run ball<\/a> in Toronto. He then allowed four runs in five innings against Minnesota<\/a> before a nightmare against the Nationals.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Belief in Burrows\u2019 arsenal seems to persist. Espada suggested Monday night the Astros must \u201ccreate some opportunities for him to go to areas where he can get some quick outs\u201d but added they \u201cneed more consistency out of his pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe know he\u2019s got the changeup, when it\u2019s down under he can get ground balls, get swing and miss,\u201d Espada said. \u201cThe fastball, find areas where he can use it. The breaking ball, at times he gets it over for strikes. But we need more consistency out of that. And he\u2019s working his tail off. We\u2019ve got to give him credit. But we\u2019ve got to help him through this process and try to get him right.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if that can unfold while a pitcher is in the major-league rotation, Espada said: \u201cYeah, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n BATTERS Team Totals Alvarez Pe\u00f1a Correa Delgado Shewmake Trammell Paredes Diaz Walker Altuve Allen Harris Smith V\u00e1zquez Loperfido Meyers Dezenzo Matthews Wade Price Cole Johnson Whitcomb Salazar ___<\/p>\n PITCHERS Team Totals Ullola Meyers Hader Santa VanWey King Okert Lambert Brown Blubaugh Pearson Arrighetti Teng De Los Santos Roa Bolton Abreu Burrows Imai McCullers Murray Weiss France Sousa Salazar Alexander Javier Gordon Mu\u00f1oz That the\u00a0Astros already detoured Burrows to the bullpen once<\/a>, still, hardly signaled his standing in the rotation as steadfast. Upon announcing last week that Cristian Javier would join the bullpen<\/a> initially in his return from the IL, Espada emphasized that \u201canything can change.\u201d Though none appear close, the Astros also have Ronel Blanco, Lance McCullers Jr. and Hayden Wesneski working back from injuries.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n After Monday\u2019s loss, Espada gave no indication Houston is weighing a change for Burrows, who also has minor-league options. Yet a sample of more than half a season is difficult to downplay. Just four of 17 starts Burrows has made are quality starts. The Astros are 6-11 in those outings, albeit while providing Burrows the lowest average run support of their current starters, per FanGraphs.<\/p>\n That was not an issue Monday. But against a Washington offense that is the highest-scoring in baseball, Burrows allowed nine hits in 4 \u2153 innings, including a pair of home runs. He generated just two whiffs on 39 swings, which he attributed partly to pitching for quick outs. The Nationals put 20 batted balls in play against him, 11 of which had exit velocities above 95 mph, the Statcast hard-hit threshold.<\/p>\n \u201cContinuing the work and going out and competing every sixth day is what everybody does, whether (an adjustment is) something small or a little more major,\u201d Burrows said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to juggle that and work your way through it and get out there and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n The outing left Burrows at 94 \u2154 innings for the season. He totaled 128 \u2153 innings last season between the majors and Triple-A. Physically, Burrows said he feels \u201cgood at this point.\u201d He dismissed the notion of confidence being an issue, as well.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any diminished confidence,\u201d Burrows said. \u201cI\u2019m in the (strike) zone. I\u2019m not afraid to make these guys swing. You get beat a couple times a game. If it\u2019s right at someone then it\u2019s going to be a great start. If it finds its way away from them or over a fence that\u2019s when some runs come. You can\u2019t be perfect. You just try and execute pitches and get outs. \u2026 It\u2019s not an issue of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n For possible answers, Burrows pointed to \u201cmaybe pitch selection\u201d or \u201ctrying not to miss in-zone, missing out of zone a little bit more.\u201d As the season shortens, so may the runway to realize them. Burrows\u2019 spot in the current rotation would come up next in the Astros\u2019 final game before the All-Star break against Texas. Whether he occupies it will be telling.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got the coaches to do it and help him through,\u201d Espada said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s tough. We\u2019ve just got to help him and continue to show confidence in him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Burrows allowed 10 runs after being staked to a big lead Monday in Washington, leading to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-363643","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\/363643","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=363643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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