CHICAGO -- Perhaps you were ready to jump ship when the Astros were 11 games under .500 in mid-May and had most of their starting pitching rotation, their All-Star closer and a handful of key position players on the injured list. But giving up on a team before Memorial Day is never wise, as the Astros are reminding us.
The banged-up Astros have built some momentum and hit the one-third mark of their schedule playing their best baseball of the season, having polished off their first three-game sweep at Wrigley Field since 2011 with an 8-5 win over the reeling Cubs on Sunday afternoon.
The Astros (23-31), who began the day 4 1/2 games out of first place in the American League West, have won six of nine games and posted their first sweep since taking three from the Red Sox in the first week of the season. They’re 4-2 on a three-city road trip that will end with four games at Texas beginning Monday.
“We’re feeling good about ourselves and the way we’re playing and it’s exciting to watch our guys play,” Astros manager Joe Espada said.
Jake Meyers, Nick Allen and Christian Walker each homered, with Walker’s three-run shot in the fifth inning off Cubs starter Shota Imanaga -- his third homer in two days -- putting the Astros ahead, 7-3. Walker’s 14 homers are one behind Yordan Alvarez for the team lead.
“I think we're feeling the momentum,” he said. “We're feeling good. I think it's about not getting complacent and just keeping our foot on the gas pedal. Series like this reminds [that] we can trust ourselves. This team is capable of a lot of really good things. Pitchers were great for us. It was nice to put up some runs. Just overall, great, great series.”
The Astros were a woeful 8-18 in April, thanks in large part to the number of injuries they endured to key players, including ace Hunter Brown, starter Cristian Javier, shortstop Jeremy Peña, outfielders Jake Meyers and Joey Loperfido. Then shortstop Carlos Correa and second baseman Jose Altuve went down in May, and Houston’s offense tanked.
Meanwhile, the Astros once-beleagued pitching staff, which posted a 5.56 ERA and six quality starts through the end of April while struggling to throw strikes, has stabilized during an 11-11 May with a 3.85 ERA and seven quality starts. Peter Lambert fell one inning shy of a quality start Sunday, but picked up the win by holding the Cubs to three runs, five hits and four walks in five innings.
“A saying I’ve heard is everybody has a good month, everybody's a bad month, and then all those months in between,” Walker said. “For me, it was like, let's just put [April] in the category of that was the bad moment. It's done, it's gone. I think with the right mindset, it can be freeing and be like, ‘OK, bad stuff is behind us.’ Like, it's all good from here. I think it's about managing the head game. Whatever narrative you gotta create to stay confident and stay offensive, I think that's what we're trying to harness.”
The Cubs batted around against Lambert in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead, but he righted the ship and didn’t allow a hit in his final three innings of work. The only baserunners the Astros had against Imanaga through three innings were solo homers by Meyers in the second and Allen in the third.
Cam Smith’s leadoff double in the fifth sparked a five-run outburst, with the Astros taking a 4-3 lead on a bloop two-run single by Peña and Walker following him with a three-run homer -- his 14th of the season -- to make it 7-3.
“The guys that came before me, they did a great job getting on base, giving us opportunities to produce,” Peña said. “That’s when we’re at our best and we pass the baton to the next guys. Right now, the energy is really good.”
The Astros could soon get some key players off the injured list, including closer Josh Hader, who’s nearing the end of his Minor League rehab assignment. Brown makes his first rehab start Sunday at Double-A Corpus Christi and could return to the rotation in three to four weeks. The momentum is building indeed.
“The energy feels great in this clubhouse,” Peña said. “Even when we were going through that rough patch, everyone kept their head up, everyone kept their chest out, no one gave in. And that’s why we are a great ballclub. We play for each other and that's what we're going to keep doing.”