HOUSTON -- Yordan Alvarez blistered a two-run single past Giants first baseman Casey Schmitt in the fifth inning Wednesday to drive in a pair of runs and bring some life to the Astros¡¯ offense. Christian Walker followed with a chance to help Houston add on, but popped out. Yainer Diaz and Jeremy Pe?a followed with strikeouts, and the Astros¡¯ rally was suddenly over.
That was a frustrating snapshot of the first homestand of the season for the Astros, who have scored 12 runs in six games and are slashing .178/.270/.222 as a team with only four extra-base hits and 54 strikeouts (14 on Wednesday). The Giants beat the Astros, 6-3, at Daikin Park to sweep the three-game series and send Houston on the road with a 2-4 record and searching for an offensive identity.
¡°We¡¯ve faced some pretty good pitching and know we¡¯ll cut those punchouts out,¡± Astros manager Joe Espada said. ¡°We¡¯re having some good at-bats. We¡¯re finding ourselves in some good hitters¡¯ counts. We¡¯ve just got to put good swings [on the ball]. We hit some balls hard today, just not much out of that.¡±
Walker, who signed a three-year, $60 million deal, and third baseman Isaac Paredes, who was one of three players who came from the Cubs in December¡¯s Kyle Tucker trade, are both off to slow starts with their new team. Walker is 3-for-24 with nine strikeouts but has hit some balls hard. Paredes is 3-for-20 with a double and five walks.
¡°It¡¯s like I told them both today, ¡®Don¡¯t press, just stay calm,¡¯¡± Espada said. ¡°They¡¯re good hitters, they¡¯re proven hitters. I know that they want to get a big hit in a new organization and that happens. I understand that, but they¡¯re really good hitters. They¡¯re going to hit. Just stay in the zone and remember who you are and what makes you a good hitter and things will start happening for them.¡±
Walker had just eight at-bats in Grapefruit League play while he dealt with an oblique injury. He tried to make up for the lost time at the plate with at-bats on the Minor League fields at the end of camp and admitted he needs to make better swing decisions.
¡°I¡¯m just trying to settle in,¡± he said. ¡°I think we¡¯re at the point in the year now where, for some reason, it feels like pitchers have an advantage. It feels like it goes back and forth early in the spring. It feels like it¡¯s on the hitters as [pitchers] start building innings to make the adjustments. It¡¯s not an excuse. It¡¯s not a reason to put together bad at-bats, but I could do a better job making better decisions and controlling the batter¡¯s box better for us.¡±
It¡¯s probably not a surprise the one hitter who¡¯s off to a hot start is Jose Altuve, who is 9-for-24, including 2-for-5 on Wednesday. He¡¯s hit safely in all six games, with three multihit games, at the top of Houston¡¯s order.
¡°I think we¡¯re getting there,¡± Altuve said. ¡°We¡¯re getting a lot of good swings, a lot of balls hit at people. I think we¡¯re getting the right swings on the balls, so it¡¯s just one or two more games that we¡¯re going to make adjustments ourselves, and I think Yordan and everybody is going to go crazy like they¡¯re great hitters. We¡¯re just one little thing away from hitting a lot.¡±
Through six games, Alvarez is 3-for-20 with seven strikeouts, Diaz is 2-for-18, Pe?a is 2-for-19 with a homer after a great spring and Jake Meyers is 2-for-10 with four strikeouts. It doesn¡¯t get easier for the Astros, who hit the road for a pair of cold-weather locations -- Minnesota and Seattle -- that have some elite starting pitchers.
¡°I think we¡¯re fine,¡± Walker said. ¡°To be honest, we¡¯ve faced some really good arms. The first handful of games, there¡¯s been a bunch of really good pitchers and on top of being good, they¡¯re executing. There¡¯s not a lot of pitches left over the heart of the plate. I could be laying off the sliders away and that could probably earn me some better pitches to hit. It feels like even their misses are finding corners. It¡¯s frustrating to give the opponent credit, but that¡¯s part of it, too, sometimes.¡±