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Is Collin McHugh Back?

By Josh Sippie

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Collin McHugh was one of the Houston Astros’ breakout performers last year. He and Dallas Keuchel combined to be a dynamic one-two punch on a team that was by no means impressive. This year, he and Keuchel were set to anchor the rotation again, but as you may have noticed, the Astros are a bit better.

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That being said, Collin McHugh had not been.

Last year, on a bad Astros team, McHugh went 11-9 with a 2.73 ERA and an impressive 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings. He finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and it looked like Collin McHugh had found his groove.

This year he came out whistling a different tune. His ERA gradually inflated until it peaked at just over 5.00. Perhaps Collin McHugh was a one-hit wonder. Or perhaps he was succumbing to the ways of his early MLB career.

But now, all of a sudden, the Astros’ righty has lowered his ERA to the lowest it has been since June began. His latest outing was a dominant show of force that saw him shut down the New York Yankees through eight innings of that aforementioned dominance. McHugh looked like his old self, striking out 8, walking only 2 and giving up just 2 hits and one run.

It was his best outing of the year by far.

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Collin McHugh may have a stellar 9-3 record, but he has been inconsistent at best. Comparing this year to last year has stark contrasts. His SO/9 are down from 9.1 to 7.4. Similarly, his hits per nine are way up from 6.8 to 9.3.

The biggest challenge for McHugh this year has been limiting the damage. He vowed wholesale changes after the Seattle Mariners ruthlessly knocked his teeth in and in the three starts since giving up 8 runs to the bottom-feeding Mariners, McHugh has given up 3, 2 and 1 runs, respectively.

Whatever wholesale changes Collin McHugh made, lets hope that this is the result of them, because with a McHugh like the Astros had last year along with a Dallas Keuchel that keeps getting better and a young, electric duo of Lance McCullers and Vincent Velasquez, the Astros have a really solid base for a rotation for years.

They say that once is a fluke, twice is coincidence, but three times is the real deal. If that is the case, then Collin McHugh has made his real deal start the most impressive. It is going to be exciting to see what he does his next time out, because if he can continue where he left off last year, baseball is in for a treat (unless you are hitting against him).

Next: Sink or swim time for Singleton?

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