ANAHEIM -- Astros starting pitcher Peter Lambert wasn’t going to pitch beyond the seventh inning on Wednesday night, but when he was struck in the right hand by a comebacker off the bat of Nick Madrigal, that made the decision easy for manager Joe Espada.
Lambert threw one test pitch after fielding the Madrigal grounder and throwing him out at first base, and then he was pulled by Espada. Lambert worked 6 1/3 innings and allowed five hits and two runs, which both came off solo homers -- Mike Trout in the first and Logan O’Hoppe in the fifth -- in the Astros’ 3-2 loss in 10 innings at Angel Stadium.
The Madrigal ball, which came off the bat at 98.6 mph, struck Lambert on the side of his hand, below the pinkie. Lambert said he expects he will be fine and didn’t anticipate the need for any imaging tests.
“The ball got him pretty good, but what a heck of a job he did,” Espada said. “That was a tremendous job. Just threw the ball extremely well -- ton of strikes, got some swing and miss. I really liked the tempo and how he worked. He kept the tempo engaged. Just a really good outing by Peter.”
Lambert lowered his ERA to 3.47 in 57 innings pitched, and he continues to be a bright spot in the rotation.
“He has risen to the occasion and been really good,” Espada said. “He competes, he makes adjustments. I feel like he’s very well-prepared. He knows his arsenal very well and knows where to go with all his pitches. The changeup, he throws it against righties and lefties; the fastball was very good today on top of the zone. He got some swing and miss. Really, really strong outing.”
The 6 1/3 innings represented the fifth-longest start of Lambert’s career and he didn’t walk a batter as a starter for the first time since May 8, 2024.
“I think overall, the command was pretty good,” he said. “We had a great plan with [Christian Vázquez]. He’s always super solid back there with the gameplanning and the pitch calling. We were able to execute it pretty well and got ahead of a lot of hitters. Got burned on two pitches, but other than that it was pretty solid.”
The Astros were trailing, 2-0, before Shay Whitcomb -- starting in place of Jeremy Peña, who was given a day off -- led off the sixth with a homer off Angels starter Reid Detmers, who had retired the first 15 Houston batters. Cam Smith homered off reliever Chase Silseth in the eighth inning to tie the game.
Jose Siri’s single in the 10th inning off reliever Bryan Abreu scored Madrigal from third with the game-winning run. The Astros hadn’t lost consecutive games at Angel Stadium since getting swept during a doubleheader on Sept. 5, 2020. They dropped to 31-39 and will try to regroup against the last-place Royals in Kansas City this weekend.
"We really got to turn the page and put this series behind us,” Espada said. “Off-day tomorrow and we have a stretch of six games. We've got to start winning some series. It's important for us to start winning some series."