HOUSTON -- As it’s currently constructed, the Astros’ starting rotation has two aces in Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez, a pair of rookies trying to find their way in Colton Gordon and Ryan Gusto and veteran Lance McCullers Jr., who is hoping to regain his ace form after a two-plus year layoff because of injuries.
The Astros are likely to go to a six-man rotation during a stretch in which they’ll play 13 games in 13 days, which began Tuesday at Daikin Park with a 4-2 loss to the White Sox. McCullers gave up four runs and four hits in five innings in what he called “kind of a weird game” in his seventh start of the season. He threw 96 pitches.
“I thought he had some swings and misses; he made some good pitches,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “A couple of walks drove his pitch count. [His] execution was not his best but he was able to give us five innings and kept us in the game.”
The starting rotation figures to loom large during this stretch. Lefty Brandon Walter, who started Sunday’s game in Cleveland, likely stays in the rotation as the sixth starter for the next two weeks, leaving the Astros down one arm in the bullpen. The longer each starter goes, the less workload will be put on the bullpen.
McCullers had gone six innings in each of his previous two starts -- a 12-strikeout masterpiece May 28 against the A’s and a scoreless outing on two hits against the Pirates a week ago. He battled to get through five Tuesday. The White Sox had a two-out RBI double by Luis Robert Jr. that scored Kyle Teel from first base, and they made it 3-0 in the third on a two-out, bases-loaded single by Edgar Quero.
In the fourth, Robert plopped a Statcast-projected 362-foot homer to start the inning. It would have been a home run in just four of 30 parks, but it was enough to put the White Sox ahead 4-1. All of it was enough to make McCullers scratch his head.
“It didn’t really feel like it was much of what they did, honestly,” he said. “Some balls found holes and I put myself in a bad situation in the third. The [Robert] ball took a really odd bounce off the wall in the second and I kind of got bit by the Crawford Boxes, which has happened to me a couple of times so far this year. Overall, I thought I threw the ball well.”
The main takeaway from Espada is that McCullers remains healthy. After missing the entire 2023 and 2024 seasons following surgery to repair a flexor tendon and a subsequent setback last season, he returned to the mound May 4 against the White Sox and has taken each of his turns in the rotation.
“He’s strong and he feels good,” Espada said. “The shape of all his pitches are there. Just better job moving forward of creating more consistency of getting ahead of hitters, because once he’s ahead he’s got wipeout stuff, right? But the more pitches he throws, it gives hitters opportunities to get back in counts, get back in the at-bat. Once he creates some consistency there, you’ll start to see him go deeper in games on a daily basis.”
Overall, McCullers has a 4.91 ERA in 29 1/3 innings this year, with the Astros going 4-3 in his starts. Since allowing seven runs in one-third of an inning in his second start May 10, McCullers has a 3.20 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in five starts covering 25 1/3 innings. The Astros had won each of his four previous starts prior to Tuesday’s loss.
“Obviously, the numbers are lopsided because of the start with Cincy,” he said. “Outside of that start, I’ve been pretty solid. Obviously, we want to keep a couple of runs off the board tonight, but the Cincy start is going to lopside everything pretty much the whole year. You’re not really going to crawl your way out of that one. My stuff feels good. I threw a lot of backdoor sinkers tonight, especially late. I look to build off that as we move forward.”