Amid 19-game stretch, Astros show 1st signs of fatigue

CLEVELAND -- Prior to Thursday’s series opener against the Guardians, Astros manager Dusty Baker said he felt the dog days of summer had shown up a little earlier this year.

If Saturday was any indication, Baker’s intuition might not be far off from the truth. With Houston nearing the end of its biblical 19-games-in-18-days stretch, the Astros struggled to put anything together against the Guardians in a 4-1 loss defined by bad breaks and offensive struggles.

“We go out there and expect our best every single day, and I think today we ran into a really good pitcher [in Cal Quantrill, who was] executing his pitches,” said bench coach and acting manager Joe Espada. “We’ve just got to tip our cap to him.”

Houston’s struggles started right out of the gate, as starter Luis Garcia labored, allowing four runs on seven hits through his first two innings. The big blow came in the second inning, when Amed Rosario smacked a two-run single one batter after Cleveland scored its second run on an error.

Saturday’s start was Garcia’s first career start at Progressive Field, something that he said contributed to his slow start.

“Pitching on the road isn’t the same as pitching at home; I feel different,” Garcia said. “Today was one of those days.”

Even with his early struggles, Garcia was still able to get through six innings, which was something that he took pride in.

“I like to compete, and I wanted to keep pitching,” Garcia said. “I tried to help the team as much as I could and I think I did. ... It was some bad luck and a couple of hits. I can’t do anything about that, so I just made my pitches after that.

Espada also credited Garcia’s length to new Astros catcher Christian Vázquez, who was able to help Garcia make some mid-game adjustments despite this being the pair’s first time as batterymates.

“Christian changed the game plan to get [Garcia] to six innings, which was huge for us,” Espada said. “He actually started using his fastball more and got the hitters off his offspeed more, so I thought he did a good job adjusting to the swings that were taken.”

Along with helping Garcia through his struggles, Vázquez also tallied his first hit as an Astro in the form of a fifth-inning, 99-mph single.

“Everything was good, I’m happy he’s here to help us,” Garcia said of Vázquez.

A day after Houston’s lineup jumped all over rookie starter Hunter Gaddis, it had trouble getting anything going against Quantrill, who only allowed four Astros to reach base in six innings of work.

Houston’s best scoring chance against Quantrill came in the sixth inning in the form of a Jake Meyers leadoff double, but he was stranded at third. He had two of the Astros’ three hits off Quantrill.

“He did a really good job,” Espada said of Quantrill. “He had his cutter and sinker going to both sides of the plate. He did a really good job getting us off balance. He was on the top of his game.”

Ironically, Houston’s lone run came against one of the best pitchers in baseball, as Alex Bregman and Aledmys Díaz hit back-to-back two-out doubles against Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase, who entered play with a miniscule 0.677 WHIP.

The double closed out a nice day for Díaz, who was back in Houston’s lineup after missing Friday’s game with a finger injury. It was his first game with multiple doubles since Sept. 23, 2020, against Seattle.

While Díaz made his return to the lineup, outfielder Kyle Tucker was once again a late scratch as he deals with a non-COVID illness.

“After BP, he just wasn’t feeling well,” Espada said of Tucker. “We just took him out to be cautious.”