It is an abrupt move for King, who until early this month was one of Houston\u2019s most trusted and effective relievers. King had a 2.03 ERA over his first 38 appearances this season. He allowed eight runs, including five home runs, across his next four outings, including an appearance in the Astros\u2019 5-2 loss Sunday.<\/p>\n
That stretch raised King\u2019s ERA more than a run to 3.40. Sunday, King entered in the fifth inning to replace starter Hunter Brown, a stark pivot from his usual late-inning usage. In each of his prior three outings, he allowed a game-tying or go-ahead run, entering one tied game and two with Houston leading by one.<\/p>\n
King was also one of just three relievers in Houston\u2019s bullpen with minor-league options. The Astros plan to activate Ronel Blanco<\/a> from the injured list to start Monday and will need to create a roster spot. They played Sunday with 14 position players and 12 pitchers, though, and could have cleared a spot for Blanco by sending out a position player.<\/p>\n Optioning King raises the possibility of adding another reliever ahead of Monday\u2019s series opener against the Marlins. Left-hander Bennett Sousa was at Daikin Park this weekend and is an option to be activated from the IL. The Astros did not announce a corresponding move Sunday for sending down King, saying it will be made pregame Monday.<\/p>\n King debuted in 2024 with the Astros and emerged last season as a leverage reliever for them, posting a 2.78 ERA over 68 outings. He lent stability early this season to a bullpen upended by closer Josh Hader\u2019s injury absence<\/a> and Bryan Abreu\u2019s struggles<\/a>. King allowed just one home run in his first 38 appearances. All five in his past four outings were to right-handed hitters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is an abrupt move for King, who until early this month was one of Houston\u2019s most trusted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-379121","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\/379121","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=379121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}