Houston Astros: A.J. Hinch makes a curious decision in win

The Houston Astros are running away with the AL West, and it’s basically a forgone conclusion that they’ll end up taking the division, if not the top spot in the American League–which makes manager A.J. Hinch‘s decision last night a bit curious.

It’s hard to doubt “the process” in Houston. The Astros have been a juggernaut this season so they have to be doing something right. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t get to nitpick Hinch’s decision-making process.

Last night with a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the sixth of a 5-3 game in Oakland, Hinch made the walk to the mound and pulled his starter. Not an unusual occurrence. What was odd was that Francis Martes was only at 75 pitches. Martes entered the season as the club’s top prospect per Baseball America, and while this was only his second career start in the big leagues, it could certainly have been used as a learning experience.

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What made the decision to pull Martes even more curious was that Hinch brought in Tony Sipp, his lone left-hander out of the bullpen, which effectively knocked Stephen Vogt out of the game. But Vogt hasn’t been the threat this year that he has been in previous seasons, batting  just .217 with a .287 OBP.

Martes had allowed a leadoff double to Khris Davis to start the inning, and Martes was allowed to face the next two batters whom he retired, but it was Vogt that posed the threat? Granted a base hit would have made it a one-run game, but with a 12 game lead in the West, you can afford yourself some teachable moments, especially when four-fifths of your starting rotation is on the disabled list and you may have to rely on someone like Martes later on when games start to matter again.

The Astros have an outstanding bullpen again this year, so why not use them? That part makes sense. If it had been Mike Fiers on the mound, knock yourself out A.J. But with a young starter who is thought to be a big piece of your future on the mound, maybe you see what he has in a bit of a pressure situation. He had tossed 88 pitches in his first start, so the pitch count wasn’t the issue.

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At the very least, save some of those bullpen bullets for later on in the season. An out or two here and there could make a big difference for the Astros come October.