HOUSTON -- Like he does with nearly every save he gets, Astros closer Josh Hader secured the baseball from his final out and kept it for himself. Sometimes he’ll give the ball to the starting pitcher if the memento means more to him -- such as rookie Ethan Pecko getting his first career win last week -- but most of the time they end up in Hader’s home.
“If you ask my wife, I'm a hoarder,” he said. “So I try and be a little bit better with my hoarding skills.”
Hader added another baseball to his collection Friday night that might be his most meaningful yet, becoming the 41st pitcher to reach 250 career saves in the Astros’ 3-1 win over the Diamondbacks at Daikin Park.
“Yeah, it's a cool achievement,” Hader said. “You see, 250 is not just from me, it takes a whole [team] effort. The team has to do the right things and obviously for me to finish it, but ultimately it’s a cool feat.”
Hader was nearly untouchable in the ninth inning Friday, striking out all three batters he faced on 16 pitches. Hader combined with three relievers and starter Cristian Javier (five innings) to hold the D-backs to three hits and one run -- a homer by Gabriel Moreno in the fourth off Javier.
The win was the third in a row and seventh in the past nine games for the Astros (73-69), who improved to a season-high four games over .500. They also opened up a three-game lead on the second-place Rangers in the American League West with 20 games remaining. Plus, the Astros own the tiebreaker over Texas.
Hader has converted all 23 of his save chances since coming off the injured list in June and has done it in such dominating fashion that he’s allowed only 14 hits and 11 walks while striking out 52 batters.
Hader ranks sixth all-time in saves among left-handers, trailing Dave Righetti by two. There’s heady company ahead of that with Randy Myers (347), Aroldis Chapman (398), Hall of Famer Billy Wagner (422) and John Franco (424).
“I never really wanted to chase saves or anything like that,” Hader said, “but obviously, looking at some of the great guys that have done it, the [Trevor] Hoffmans, the [Mariano] Riveras, all those guys, and then, obviously, Chapman, [Kenley] Jansen, just seeing them go about their business and how well they've done it, you know that as a ballplayer, you just want to kind of follow in that footstep.”
Hader, who saved 28 games for the Astros in 2025 and made his sixth All-Star team, landed on the 15-day injured list last August with a left shoulder strain after reporting some shoulder discomfort while working out at Daikin Park. He didn’t pitch again in '25 after his Aug. 8 outing against the Yankees.
Hader resumed throwing again in January and was around 85-87 mph in the bullpen before he felt his left biceps grab him while throwing a changeup. He would miss the first two months of this season with left biceps tendinitis.
His return June 3 was one of the reasons the Astros overcame a slow start and are making a push for the playoffs. Houston is 45-34 since Hader came back. Watching the games from the sidelines, Hader thought he could use the ABS challenge system to his advantage by being in the strike zone more and not necessarily chasing strikeouts.
“Previously, I'm trying for the big punchout,” he said. “And now, if it comes, it comes. But those one-pitch outs are also nice. I also think if you’re in the zone, especially with ABS, it’s going to get these hitters in a different approach than typically before, when they could -- not saying they want to get deep into counts -- but they are able to [take] if something’s close and they can challenge. So my goal this year, just watching games, was [to] attack the zone as best as possible.”
Hader wasn’t active for the Astros playoff race last September, which is one of the reasons Houston missed the postseason by one game. Now he’s one of the reasons why the club has an 84.5 percent chance to return to the postseason, per FanGraphs.
“We play this game to get to the World Series,” Hader said. “Being towards the end of the season, you gotta catch the momentum and if you can hold strong and be able to play good baseball and ride that into the playoffs, you give yourself a really good chance.”