MINNEAPOLIS -- Just three weeks ago, the Astros had the most productive offense in the American League.
But thanks to recent results, that hot start feels like a distant memory. The Astros’ offensive struggles were on display again on Wednesday afternoon when they fell to the Twins, 4-1, dropping two of three games this week at Target Field.
Entering play on May 1, the Astros had scored an AL-leading 168 runs through 32 games -- an average of 5.25 runs per game.
Since then, however, the bats have been scuffling. Through Wednesday’s loss, Houston had scored 50 runs in 19 May games for an average of 2.6 runs per game. Only the Angels (with 44 runs in 17 games entering Wednesday) have scored fewer.
To further illustrate the dropoff: Astros hitters produced a slash line of .265/.345/.437 in March and April, each of which were third in Majors and first in the American League. In May, those numbers dropped to .214/.276/.345 through Wednesday’s game, which ranks 26th, 28th and 28th in the Majors.
To be fair, the Astros have been hit harder by injuries than most teams in the league. They’ve been missing infielder Carlos Correa, shortstop Jeremy Peña, outfielder Jake Meyers, catcher Yainer Diaz, outfielder Joey Loperfido, outfielder Taylor Trammell and second baseman Jose Altuve for all or part of the month.
But injuries alone can’t explain that steep of a decline in offensive production from month to month. The issues facing the Astros are a bit more complex, but some of their struggles can also be chalked up to circumstance.
“It’s a part of the game,” designated hitter Yordan Alvarez said through a team interpreter. “It’s a long season and there’s going to be ups and downs. I think right now we're struggling a little bit. But like I said, it's a long season.”
On Wednesday, the Astros made Twins pitcher Joe Ryan work hard the first time through the order, as four of the first nine batters hit singles. But after No. 9 hitter Christian Vázquez drove in a run with a base hit against his old batterymate, Ryan locked it down. He retired the next 13 hitters -- the last 13 he faced on the day. He fanned a season-high nine batters, part of a 15-strikeout day for the Astros, matching their highest total this season.
Another number that stood out to manager Joe Espada was the team’s zero walks over the last two games.
“That’s back-to-back days, no walks for us,” Espada said. “We’re good when we grind out our at-bats, which we did early in the game, driving the pitch count up. We’re just not really forcing them to give us pitches to hit. We need to start controlling more of our at-bats and the outcome of our at-bats.”
Some of the Astros’ most important hitters have been right in the middle of the offensive slowdown. Christian Walker (2-for-13 in the series), Alvarez (1-for-11 with two walks), Meyers (1-for-7 with four strikeouts) and Isaac Paredes (2-for-12 with a home run) were quiet throughout the series.
“We ran into some good pitching here the last couple of series. Facing some good starters -- Seattle, Texas and Joe [Ryan] is as tough as they come,” Espada said. “But we have to do a better job controlling the quality of our at-bats -- see the signs and the patterns of what pitchers are trying to do to us and stay with our game plan. And we need to make that adjustment going into our off-day in Chicago.”
After a day of rest, the Astros will try to improve on their 8-17 road record, which is fourth-worst in the Major Leagues, with a three-game set at Wrigley Field. And as Alvarez noted, it’s not too late for the Astros to turn it around.
“Right now, everybody in our division is struggling a little bit,” Alvarez said. “So, if we get a streak or we get a good game, we can position ourselves in a good spot in the division.”