DENVER -- A day after they placed ace right-hander Hunter Brown on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder strain, an eight-run fifth inning proved too much to overcome for the Astros -- even with an offense that came into the contest averaging 8.5 runs per game over their previous eight.
The result was a 9-7 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field in their series opener on Monday night.
“Things got out of hand in that inning,” manager Joe Espada said. “Our offense kept on grinding, fighting to the end.”
But while the lineup continues to do its thing -- Houston leads the Majors with 77 runs scored on the young season -- Espada and his staff will now have to navigate the near future without a fully healthy rotation.
The Astros, who lost two-time All-Star left-hander Framber Valdez in free agency this past offseason, planned for such a contingency by adding starting pitching depth in the form of Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai (and his unique slider), as well as fellow righties Mike Burrows, Kai-Wei Teng and Ryan Weiss.
But a common thread among that group, as well as Monday’s starter, Cody Bolton, is inexperience at the Major League level.
Bolton’s outing at Coors Field on Monday was his first MLB start -- and he only had 45 innings of Major League experience prior to that -- and he was effective over the first four innings, holding Colorado scoreless on 57 pitches. But in the fifth, he got into a jam with runners at second and third with one out.
With his bullpen taxed from a 12-10 walk-off loss to the A’s on Sunday, Espada needed length from certain relievers as he tried to stay away from others.
He summoned Weiss, who spent the past two years pitching as a starter in the Korea Baseball Organization, from the bullpen. Over his first three MLB outings, he appeared as a reliever and pitched well, giving up one run over six innings.
But on this night, it all fell apart. And fast.
When it was all said and done, the Rockies had sent 14 men to the plate. Weiss surrendered four singles, three doubles and a triple, also walking two in the eight-run frame.
“It wasn’t fun,” Weiss said. “I did not execute early in my outing, and I think that’s what hurt me. … I’ve got to be able to make some better pitches when I first come into the inning.”
As for still getting used to pitching in a relief role -- though his starting experience makes him a candidate for the planned six-man rotation along with Spencer Arrighetti (currently with Triple-A Sugar Land) -- Weiss said it wasn’t an issue.
Even when he was tasked with coming in with two runners in scoring position, as opposed to a clean inning like his first three big league appearances.
“It’s part of the game,” Weiss said. “Whether I’ve done it a lot recently or not, it’s my job. And next time, I just need to do a better job.”
The defense behind Weiss didn’t help his cause, particularly at shortstop. Jeremy Peña, who Espada said is nearing a return to playing every day after Houston slow-played him to start the season because of a fractured right ring finger from a World Baseball Classic exhibition game, made a pair of costly mistakes in the field in the fateful fifth.
The first came on a Hunter Goodman ground ball. Peña broke to his right as the pitch was being thrown, and the ball was hit to his left and trickled into left-center field.
Peña said that he was anticipating a ball hit to his right if Goodman made contact based on the pitch thrown and his swing.
“I just had a bad read on it,” Peña said. “I tried to read the swing, and I read something different. It’s unfortunate the way it played out, but yeah, no excuse.”
Later, Peña dropped a routine ground ball off the bat of Brenton Doyle that would have ended the disastrous frame.
Peña said the earlier miscue didn’t portend the second one.
“I feel like we’ve done this for way too long,” he said. “We don’t carry over plays. We’re pretty good at flushing things out.”
The Astros will have to flush this one out quickly.
The offense continues to produce, with Cam Smith contributing a double and a Statcast-projected 462-foot homer as two of Houston’s 13 hits on the night.
But the question still remains: Will the Astros be able to get through Brown’s absence with Weiss et al?