Rookie Bloss shows the skip something: 'Really chill'

HOUSTON -- In the short amount of time that Jake Bloss has spent up with the Astros this season, first-year skipper Joe Espada has learned that nothing fazes the 23-year-old rookie.

Being called up from Double-A Corpus Christi to make his Major League debut. Exiting it due to right shoulder discomfort, which landed him on the 15-day injured list. Tossing a rehab start in Triple-A Sugar Land on July 6. Then, five days later, returning to the mound at Minute Maid Park to try to seal a series sweep of the Marlins on Thursday night.

None of it fazed him.

“With his personality, I’m not surprised,” Espada said following the Astros’ 6-3 victory. “Nothing fazes him. I think he’s really chill and even-keel. He’s just happy to be in this moment and he has a bunch of good dudes in there who are going to help him out.”

In a season in which Espada has had to plug holes in a starting rotation riddled with injuries, Bloss was brought up to help fill one of them.

From his first start to now, Bloss has seen a difference.

“Definitely nerves calmed down a little,” said Bloss, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Astros' No. 9 prospect. “I usually don’t get that amped up, but this one was definitely easier to stay calm. I think that’ll continue to happen the more [starts] I get. Definitely a difference.”

After giving up a solo home run to the second batter of the game, Bryan De La Cruz, on Thursday, Bloss settled in and ended the first inning with a strikeout of Jake Burger, who swung over a sweeping curveball that fell out of the zone. Bloss pumped his fist as he walked off the mound.

Bloss worked the next three innings, surrendering just one run across them and striking out three more Marlins to give him a four-strikeout performance. Three of the four punchouts and five of his nine swings and misses came on the curveball.

“Curveball felt pretty good,” Bloss said. “I thought [catcher César Salazar] called a good game today. Set up pitches well and helped the curveball play a little bit better.”

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was impressed by the young pitcher who went through his lineup twice and stranded four baserunners.

“He's going to be a good young pitcher,” Schumacher said. “He was just drafted right out of college. I know they've had a lot of injuries just like us and may have forced them to bring him up early, but he's going to be good. He can really spin the ball.”

Being on a pitch count, Bloss knew he would have to be efficient to get close to garnering his first Major League win.

At the end of his four innings, Bloss sat at 82 pitches and had to hand the game over to the bullpen, keeping him just shy of that first victory. The rookie finished giving up two runs on four hits, walking one and striking out four.

“His stuff was really good,” Espada said. “Velo was there. Breaking on the curveballs was good. Slider was good. Got into some deep counts. Got ahead of hitters, and then they fouled some pitches off and built up his pitch count. He showed that he’s healthy, and that’s something we really wanted to see out of him.”

The innings that Bloss was able to give the Astros were valuable, Espada said. With all the injuries they have had, guys like him are needed to come up and give the team an opportunity to win.

Which Bloss hopes has lined him up to get the ball every fifth day moving forward.

“I hope so,” Bloss said about if he thinks he has solidified his spot in the rotation. “I just take it day by day and just take it game by game, and whatever happens happens.”