HOUSTON -- Jake Odorizzi had pitched at Minute Maid Park only twice previously in his career before making his Astros debut Tuesday night against the Tigers, and he was well aware of how routine fly balls to left field can quickly turn into home runs with the Crawford Boxes just 315 feet from home plate.
The Tigers provided Odorizzi a tough reminder about how opposing hitters can take advantage of the short porch in left field by sending three of his pitches into the Crawford Boxes for homers -- accounting for three of Detroit’s season-high five homers -- during an 8-2 win over Houston, which has lost four in a row.
Odorizzi, who signed to a two-year deal on March 8, needed extra time at the Astros’ alternate training site to build up his pitch count before taking the mound Tuesday. Akil Baddoo led off the third inning with a 348-foot homer, and Nomar Mazara (363 feet) and Renato Núñez (381) each slugged two-run homers to left in the fourth to put Detroit ahead, 5-1.
“When I pitched here before, I would just attack and go, but now that I’m going to be pitching here all the time, it might be something to adjust, talk to other guys, see what other starters have done in the past,” said Odorizzi, who threw 80 pitches in 3 1/3 innings. “Maybe if I get a hold of [Justin] Verlander at some point and talk to him about it. He has a high fastball carry as well. … It’s something I’ll adjust to. I have to. I’m signed up here for the next couple of years. I have to learn to pitch here.”
Baddoo’s opposite-field shot -- which was 102 feet shorter than his 450-foot blast on Monday -- barely cleared the left-field wall. According to Statcast, the home run would not have been a homer in any other ballpark (with normal wind conditions and no altitude), something Odorizzi was told by the Astros’ analysts after the game.
“I thought it was a fly ball,” he said. “I know it’s short over there, but I didn’t get a feel for how short it was until that one, the very first one. The second one, I kind of knew off the bat, ‘Alright, it’s short over there,’ and [Mazara] got on top of it. Still, it wasn’t hit great, but I knew that one was more than likely going to be gone.”
Mazara’s homer sailed a few rows deep and would have been a homer in seven other parks. Núñez’s homer landed in the back in the Crawford Boxes and would have been a homer anywhere. Not to be outdone, Wilson Ramos slugged a pair of homers to right field off the Astros' bullpen and neither of them traveled 400 feet, either. His fifth-inning homer off Bryan Abreu went 363 feet and his ninth-inning shot off Nivaldo Rodriguez went 383 feet. In all, the five homers hit by Detroit traveled 1,838 feet.
“They’ve been hitting the ball out of the ballpark on us with consistency. Probably the last four days, actually, starting with the A’s,” said Astros manager Dusty Baker, whose team has allowed 13 homers in the past four games. “We certainly got to find a way not to give up those homers. The ballpark helps [hitters], but we’re playing in this ballpark, too. We’ve got to find a way to stop that ball from going over the fence.”
The short outing by Odorizzi continued a worrisome trend for Houston, which has had trouble getting its starting pitchers to work deep into games. Through 12 games, their starters have gone at least six innings only three times, including twice by Zack Greinke. Houston starters have thrown only 53 1/3 of the 98 innings the team has pitched so far.
“I’ll take today as a learning experience,” Odorizzi said. “Unfortunately, the loss comes at my hands, but we’ll move forward from it, I’ll move forward from it and we’ll get back on track.”