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Despite getting a key hit in Monday's win, Jeremy Peña saw his recent slump continue as the Astros lost for the fifth time in the past eight games Tuesday. (Bryan Kennedy/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO - Hours after the Houston Astros finalized a roster move Tuesday meant to provide help against left-handed pitching, a moment to showcase it materialized.
Facing left-handed Giants starter Carson Whisenhunt gave the Astros a chance to plug outfielder Nelson Velázquez, claimed off waivers Monday and activated prior to Tuesday's game, directly into their lineup. That a hitter with 83 major-league plate appearances since 2024 slotted sixth in it underscored a need.
Houston entered the day extracting a .202 batting average and a .654 OPS from its right-handed-hitting outfielders against left-handed pitching this season, according to FanGraphs. Its overall .706 OPS against lefties ranked 17th in the majors, middling for a lineup that has often skewed right-handed.
The Astros did get to the first left-handed starter they saw on this road trip, scoring four runs off Robbie Ray in San Diego, but began Tuesday with a 14-16 record when facing a left-handed starter. Whisenhunt entered with a 7.25 ERA in five starts this season for San Francisco. He wavered early.
Three of the Astros' first four hitters reached, loading the bases with one out. Two right-handed hitters loomed. Whisenhunt dispatched the first, Christian Walker, on a pop-up, bringing up Velázquez. He got ahead 3-0, saw the count run full and pulled a changeup for a sharp ground out.
A 4-1 loss for Houston did not hinge on Velázquez, who is likely to serve primarily as a right-handed bat off the bench. His was one of five plate appearances the Astros took with the bases loaded in the first two innings against Whisenhunt. Those yielded one run, on a sacrifice fly by Yordan Alvarez.
The others were Walker's pop-up, a grounder by Jeremy Peña that produced a force out at home plate and a fly out by Isaac Paredes that ended the second inning, after which the Astros did not put another runner in scoring position. The results and hitters involved were illustrative.
2026 ASTROS STATS
| BATTERS | AVG | OBA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Totals | .244 | .320 | 4081 | 557 | 996 | 181 | 10 | 162 | 530 | 410 | 980 | 38 | 16 | 53 |
| Alvarez | .322 | .435 | 432 | 80 | 139 | 25 | 0 | 35 | 87 | 83 | 90 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Peña | .291 | .349 | 289 | 55 | 84 | 12 | 1 | 13 | 38 | 21 | 65 | 8 | 1 | 8 |
| Correa | .279 | .369 | 122 | 22 | 34 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 18 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Delgado | .273 | .314 | 33 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Paredes | .256 | .349 | 418 | 45 | 107 | 21 | 1 | 15 | 62 | 46 | 69 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Shewmake | .256 | .272 | 78 | 10 | 20 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Diaz | .252 | .282 | 226 | 25 | 57 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 28 | 9 | 37 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Allen | .250 | .297 | 108 | 18 | 27 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Altuve | .240 | .304 | 371 | 54 | 89 | 15 | 1 | 13 | 35 | 33 | 82 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Walker | .236 | .316 | 432 | 59 | 102 | 24 | 1 | 22 | 67 | 42 | 112 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Trammell | .233 | .324 | 163 | 25 | 38 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 20 | 18 | 54 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Wade | .227 | .356 | 75 | 11 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 15 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Smith | .226 | .297 | 389 | 52 | 88 | 15 | 2 | 16 | 44 | 35 | 107 | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Harris | .226 | .286 | 31 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Loperfido | .216 | .314 | 102 | 13 | 22 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 14 | 31 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Vázquez | .213 | .266 | 202 | 18 | 43 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 23 | 15 | 42 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Meyers | .213 | .268 | 141 | 15 | 30 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Dezenzo | .213 | .280 | 75 | 11 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Matthews | .197 | .250 | 208 | 23 | 41 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 22 | 15 | 71 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Price | .167 | .231 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Spence | .162 | .244 | 37 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cole | .157 | .189 | 51 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Varsho | .143 | .273 | 28 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Johnson | .143 | .294 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Whitcomb | .130 | .167 | 23 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Salazar | .056 | .227 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Velázquez | .000 | .000 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
___
| PITCHERS | W | L | ERA | G | GS | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Totals | 61 | 60 | 4.57 | 121 | 121 | 37 | 1072.1 | 953 | 585 | 545 | 164 | 499 | 1053 |
| Meyers | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hader | 4 | 1 | 1.00 | 28 | 0 | 16 | 27 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 38 |
| Santa | 0 | 1 | 1.17 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 15.1 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 9 |
| VanWey | 1 | 0 | 1.50 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Okert | 5 | 1 | 2.16 | 58 | 1 | 0 | 58.1 | 39 | 15 | 14 | 6 | 12 | 60 |
| Sousa | 0 | 1 | 3.00 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 13 |
| Lambert | 8 | 6 | 3.09 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 113.2 | 87 | 40 | 39 | 12 | 44 | 111 |
| Blubaugh | 4 | 2 | 3.56 | 45 | 0 | 1 | 73.1 | 57 | 31 | 29 | 10 | 33 | 75 |
| Pearson | 1 | 0 | 3.60 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 16 |
| Brown | 3 | 2 | 3.68 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 63.2 | 46 | 28 | 26 | 8 | 35 | 67 |
| King | 2 | 3 | 3.83 | 47 | 0 | 6 | 49.1 | 50 | 23 | 21 | 7 | 17 | 40 |
| Wesneski | 2 | 0 | 3.86 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 18.2 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| De Los Santos | 1 | 3 | 4.18 | 52 | 0 | 5 | 56 | 52 | 29 | 26 | 7 | 12 | 53 |
| Abreu | 4 | 3 | 4.29 | 45 | 0 | 7 | 42 | 29 | 22 | 20 | 7 | 30 | 55 |
| Teng | 5 | 6 | 4.35 | 25 | 10 | 0 | 68.1 | 62 | 37 | 33 | 10 | 30 | 67 |
| Arrighetti | 7 | 5 | 4.60 | 17 | 17 | 0 | 88 | 68 | 47 | 45 | 12 | 50 | 87 |
| Roa | 0 | 1 | 5.19 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 8.2 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| Bolton | 0 | 1 | 5.40 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 20 | 21 | 12 | 12 | 3 | 14 | 22 |
| Ullola | 0 | 0 | 5.40 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| Imai | 6 | 4 | 5.55 | 16 | 15 | 0 | 61.2 | 50 | 38 | 38 | 9 | 40 | 77 |
| Burrows | 4 | 9 | 5.99 | 18 | 17 | 0 | 94.2 | 112 | 69 | 63 | 21 | 35 | 75 |
| Javier | 1 | 3 | 6.68 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 32.1 | 39 | 24 | 24 | 6 | 16 | 25 |
| McCullers | 2 | 3 | 6.86 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 39.1 | 38 | 32 | 30 | 7 | 22 | 43 |
| Blanco | 0 | 1 | 6.98 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 19.1 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 6 | 11 | 17 |
| Murray | 0 | 0 | 7.43 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 13.1 | 19 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 8 |
| Weiss | 0 | 3 | 7.62 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 35 | 24 | 22 | 8 | 20 | 30 |
| France | 0 | 0 | 8.10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6.2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| Salazar | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Alexander | 1 | 1 | 9.33 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 18.1 | 21 | 19 | 19 | 4 | 8 | 14 |
| Gordon | 0 | 0 | 11.57 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9.1 | 21 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 11 |
| Muñoz | 0 | 0 | 15.75 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
Houston's two recent outfield additions aim to improve specific margins. Daulton Varsho, the Astros' lone trade deadline acquisition, gives them an everyday center fielder and a left-handed outfield bat, albeit one with an 83 OPS-plus this season. Velázquez can be a matchup against lefties.
Established fixtures will have to fuel the Astros' offense, though, if they are to win an underwhelming division and return to the playoffs. Their lull the past week-plus since a torrid stretch prior to the trade deadline underscores it, even as, at 61-60, they hold a half-game lead in the American League West.
In losing five of their past eight games, the Astros have averaged 3.6 runs. Peña, the leadoff man, is 2-for-34 in that stretch, albeit with a critical hit Monday in a 10-inning win. Alvarez is 6-for-29 with one extra-base hit and three runs batted in during that span. Paredes is 8-for-29 with two RBIs.
Houston's eight home runs in its past eight games have come from Cam Smith (three), Taylor Trammell (two), Varsho and Jose Altuve. The contributions are encouraging - particularly Smith's uptick and at-bats - but ideally would complement offense being created by the top of lineup, not the case of late.
Walker, who has mostly hit in the middle, also bears some weight. No Astros hitter has taken more at-bats with men in scoring position this season than Walker, who awoke Tuesday with a .208 average in those situations. He has more runs scored (four) than driven in (three) in the club's past eight games, a partial reflection of less traffic ahead of him.
Altuve has created some, with nine hits in his last 27 at-bats. But the second baseman exited Tuesday's game after being struck by a Whisenhunt pitch on his left foot in his first plate appearance. Altuve was slated to have more imaging Wednesday, manager Joe Espada said, leaving his short-term availability in some question, though Altuve said "if I'm able to play, I'll be out there."
Altuve batted in Houston's cleanup spot the last five games, reflecting the search for production in the middle of the order. Varsho's initial usage there was short-lived, as he has slotted seventh for the past three games and is 4-for-28 with the Astros. Varsho did have one of their four hits against Whisenhunt on Tuesday. Paredes had two, including one of the two hits they totaled after the second inning.
Whisenhunt, after his precarious start, lasted 5 ⅔ innings. It matched the longest of the left-hander's 11 major-league outings, in which he owns a 5.61 ERA. He earned a win Tuesday opposing Astros ace Hunter Brown, who was not his sharpest but still allowed just three runs over five innings. Brown had minimal support from a lineup awaiting its key players to awaken.
"We were in that game until the end," Espada said. "We just needed to have some better at-bats with men in scoring position."
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There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Houston Astros' scuffling offense needs more from its heavy hitters as downturn deepens.
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