TORONTO — The margin for error is microscopic, magnifying Joe Espada’s every managerial move. His Houston Astros are hampered by attrition and allergic to anything resembling clutch hitting, presenting daily dilemmas for a man not keen on deviating from the formulas that put this club in first place.
“I go about it the same way I go about it day one,” Epada said on Wednesday. “I trust the process we have. I trust the veteran players that we have. If there is a point where I need to pull someone to the side or discipline someone, I will do that (on) day one in April or in September. It’s the same. Expectations are still the same.”
So, after three batters of Thursday afternoon’s game against the Blue Jays, Espada’s coaches brought the infield in. The runner standing at third base represented a fatal blow to the Astros’ flailing lineup. Houston could not allow it to score, indicated by this somewhat peculiar positioning.
Managers across the sport bring the infield in. Few do it during the first inning, but this has been Espada’s preference all season, even when his impotent offense still inspired some confidence.
Nothing about its current state conjures any such belief. Only two lineups in the sport have a lower OPS across the last 30 days. Houston is averaging 3.73 runs across its past 38 games. Six of those have been shutouts, the latest a lifeless 6-0 showing on Thursday at Rogers Centre.
“We are working hard every single day,” Espada said. “This is an offense that will take just one game, two games in a row and then they explode and we’re just trying to get there. We need to get there.”
Because they are not, all four Astros infielders crept onto the grass before Addison Barger began his first-inning plate appearance. Barger watched two curveballs — one ball and one strike — before blooping a fastball into a beautiful sun-splashed sky.
The baseball traveled 176 feet. Second baseman Jose Altuve and shortstop Jeremy Peña left the grass while turning their backs in pursuit of it. Right fielder Jesús Sánchez sprinted in to join. The blooper fell between all three of them, somewhere around where Altuve could’ve been standing had Houston kept a standard infield setup.
“I was conscious that the infield was playing in and I was playing deep, but that’s not an excuse,” Sánchez said through an interpreter. “I just know for next time, I already know, I have to go and make the play.”
Outfielders always have priority over infielders on popups, positioning be damned. Altuve peeled off of the play almost immediately. The ball is Sánchez’s to catch, Espada intimated, even if he needed to cover 133 feet to corral it. Some concern existed before the game about the sun shining in right field, but if it posed a problem, Sánchez did not mention it.
“I thought we should have made that play,” Espada said.
After they didn’t, hope left the first-base dugout. Two-run deficits feel like 20 for an Astros team teetering toward a collapse. Sixty-seven days ago, they led the American League West by seven games. With 22 regular-season games remaining, FanGraphs gave Houston a 77.1 percent chance to win its fifth consecutive division title.
Five losses in the subsequent eight days have removed Houston as the favorite. The team boarded an Atlanta-bound airplane on Thursday night with 42 percent odds to claim the American League West. Fifteen games remain.
“Two weeks and some change left. It’s urgent. We have to play better baseball,” third baseman Carlos Correa said. “That’s the beauty of this sport, it turns around in just one day. We have to find that day, and that day has to be soon for us to turn it around, get on a hot streak leading into the playoffs. That would be beautiful to see.”
Six games next week at Daikin Park against the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners still allow the Astros to control their own destiny. At worst, they will awake on Friday tied with Seattle atop the division.
Three games this weekend against the underperforming Atlanta Braves should be a godsend. So is the fact that Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown will start two of them. Seizing advantage seems mandatory, even if nothing about the Astros’ recent performance indicates it will happen.
Only five teams in baseball have scored fewer runs than the Astros. (Vaughn Ridley / Getty Images)
“We understand what’s at stake,” Correa said. “We’ve been in this position before and we understand that our goal is to go out there and to be able to have a chance to win a championship, and, in order to do that, we have to play better baseball.”
It begins and ends in the batter’s box. Houston’s underperforming offense is putting far too much pressure on every other part of this team, be it a pitching staff rendered unrecognizable by injuries, two suspect defenders in either corner outfield spot or the decisions from Espada that should not carry this much weight.
Bringing the infield in during the first inning should not be a death knell for the eight that follow.
“We need to find more consistency in our at-bats game to game,” Espada said. “We saw some really good at-bats yesterday. The day before, I thought we (were) grinding some at-bats and getting some runners on base and then it’s just becoming really hard for us to do it (for) three or four games in a row. And we need to find that. We need more of our offense to contribute.”
Correa and Yordan Alvarez have become the only two sources of continuity across this trying stretch. Correa is hitting .295 in 149 at-bats since the Astros re-acquired him at the trade deadline. Alvarez has played 15 games since coming off the injured list. Thursday’s was the first in which he did not reach base.
Pleas for Espada to enact some shakeup are understandable, but it’s worth wondering what he can realistically do. Sánchez has 11 extra-base hits in 116 plate appearances since the Astros acquired him from the Miami Marlins. Underperforming first baseman Christian Walker has 84 strikeouts this season with runners on base. No major-leaguer has more.
Espada did move Correa into the three-hole prior to Tuesday’s game, putting Jose Altuve in the cleanup spot for the first time since 2014. Altuve responded with one single in eight at-bats and, on Wednesday, required a day off for what Espada described as “a little mental and physical blow.”
Altuve began August with an .805 OPS. He exited Thursday’s game with a .762 mark. His career is synonymous with streaky performances, but few have felt as drastic as this. Altuve has 13 hits in his past 90 plate appearances — and, still, he profiled as Espada’s best option to bat cleanup on Thursday.
A team spokesman said Altuve was “not available” for interviews following Thursday’s game.
“It just needs to be more guys involved so then we can get rolling,” Espada said. “Then you start seeing us score a ton of runs. We’re not getting that right now.”
On numerous occasions since his arrival, Correa has called for a better “collective approach” from Houston’s offense. Nothing the team has produced appears close to that plea.
“Looking for something at the plate and executing that plan, not deviating from it in the middle of it,” Correa said. “It’s easier said than done, otherwise everybody could play in the big leagues. There’s talent in this locker room to be able to execute.”
Time is running out for it to manifest.
(Top photo of Jose Altuve: Kevin Sousa / Getty Images)