{"id":380206,"date":"2026-07-20T23:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380206\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T23:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:09:07","slug":"houston-astros-jeremy-pena-back-in-lineup-christian-walker-still-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380206\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Astros: Jeremy Pe\u00f1a back in lineup, Christian Walker still out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a returned to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/sports\/astros\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Houston Astros<\/a>&#8216; lineup Monday, while first baseman Christian Walker remained absent for a second consecutive game.<\/p>\n<p>Walker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/sports\/astros\/article\/jeremy-pena-leaves-game-22350777.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">was removed from Saturday\u2019s game<\/a> due to \u201cright hip tightness\u201d after he took a check-swing in a fourth-inning at-bat against Baltimore. Monday, Walker did on-field pregame work with the Astros with the possibility of being available off the bench for their series opener against the Marlins, manager Joe Espada said.<\/p>\n<p>This is the first time this season Walker has been absent from Houston\u2019s lineup in back-to-back games. He had a .234\/.310\/.456 slash line with 20 home runs and a 113 OPS-plus in 98 games before Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Pe\u00f1a also exited Saturday\u2019s game early, due to a right hamstring cramp. He was back in the leadoff spot and at shortstop for the Astros on Monday against Miami. Pe\u00f1a entered the day with a .295\/.359\/.430 slash line and a 122 OPS-plus in 53 games this season.<\/p>\n<p>Injuries have cut into Pe\u00f1a\u2019s season. The 2025 All-Star missed a month to a right hamstring strain in the first half and left a June 22 game in Toronto due to a cramp in that hamstring. He missed 10 days on the IL with a left calf strain before the All-Star break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a returned to the Houston Astros&#8216; lineup Monday, while first baseman Christian Walker remained absent for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-380206","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\/380206","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=380206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}