'We’re a good club playing bad baseball': Astros head home ready to regroup

SEATTLE -- Believe it or not, there is good news for the Astros. The season is still in its infancy, which means there’s time to get healthy and turn things around following a disastrous road trip in which they went 1-9 against the A’s, Rockies and Mariners and lost their All-Star shortstop and three starting pitchers to injuries.

The road trip ended on Monday afternoon with a 6-2 loss and a four-game sweep at the hands of the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. The Astros have lost eight in a row following a 6-3 start, which is their longest losing streak since they dropped the final 15 games of the 2013 season en route to a franchise-worst 111 losses.

“This is a road trip that is one to forget,” manager Joe Espada said. “It was not good from the very beginning, but tomorrow’s a new day. We’ve got to go home and start all over again.”

This team has way too much talent to be compared to a rebuilding club, but having three starting pitchers land on the injured list -- Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier to shoulder strains and Tatsuya Imai to arm fatigue -- and Jeremy Peña going on the shelf with a hamstring strain on Monday have tested Houston’s depth and resolve barely three weeks into the season.

• Astros place Peña (hamstring), Imai (arm fatigue) on IL, recall France, Gordon

Remember, the 2024 Astros started 6-14 and won the American League West with an 88-73 record, so it’s not unchartered territory for several of the players in the clubhouse.

“It’s not good losing eight straight -- I get it, but those guys in there make me feel we’re going to get out of this,” Espada said. “We’ve got to stay in his fight and continue to help these guys every day get ready to play. But I’ve seen this before. We’ll go back home and we’ll start fresh tomorrow.”

So how can they turn it around?

Stabilize the starting rotation

Returning to Daikin Park, where the Astros have won five in a row, to face the Rockies on Tuesday will be welcomed, though the Rockies did sweep the Astros last week in Denver. The Astros have to somehow stabilize their rotation, which was thrown into chaos with three-fifths of the starters getting injured.

What’s more, starter Cody Bolton leaving Sunday’s loss to the Mariners after recording only three outs with back tightness put more strain on a bullpen that has thrown more innings (74) than the rotation (71 1/3). The Astros have shuttled pitchers to and from Triple-A Sugar Land the last few days just trying to get rested arms to eat up some innings.

Mike Burrows threw six innings on Monday, giving up a pair of homers to Josh Naylor, but he gave the Astros their longest start since March 31, so that helped ease things. Burrows has a 6.55 ERA in four starts covering 22 innings.

“I definitely think there’s been some tough breaks, and overall the ball has been throwing pretty well,” Burrows said. “There’s a lot of weak contact, stuff that’s fallen, which is a little unfortunate, but there’s still areas to get better and areas to improve.”

Left-hander Colton Gordon, who has a 1.76 ERA in three Triple-A starts, will start on Tuesday against the Rockies. Spencer Arrighetti, who has a 1.26 ERA in three Triple-A starts, likely joins the rotation Wednesday or Thursday.

Get healthy

The Astros have clearly shifted how they approach injuries this year in terms of transparency. They’re giving quicker, more accurate diagnoses and have retired the word “discomfort,” which was seemingly used to describe most injuries the past few years. What they’re not doing is giving timetables for possible returns.

With that in mind, we don’t know when Brown, Javier or Imai will be back. The Astros do appear close to getting lefty reliever Bennett Sousa back, and closer Josh Hader may face hitters later this week. Hader started the season on the injured list with biceps tendinitis and forced Bryan Abreu into the closer’s role, where he’s struggled.

This is the second year in a row injuries have plagued the Astros’ rotation, but Carlos Correa doesn’t want to use injuries as an excuse.

“I don’t want to attach our failures to just injuries,” Correa said. “Our failures are because we’re playing [bad] baseball. Simple as that. There’s no way around it. There’s no excuse. We’re a good club playing bad baseball, and that’s what’s happening right now. You’ve just got to go home, regroup, make adjustments and play better.”