Houston Astros: Lance McCullers Jr. injury further exposes weakness
With Lance McCullers Jr. hitting the injured list, the Houston Astros weakness will further be exposed. And they were silent at the trading deadline.
When a pitcher is throwing well and all of sudden gets blown up, you wonder if the reason is injury-related. Lance McCullers Jr. has had a decent season (save the eight runs he surrendered to the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier in the year), though last time out he failed to record an out.
He faced just five batters, walking three and giving up two hits. After throwing just 18 pitches, his day was done and you had to worry if an injury was behind the poor start.
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It was.
McCullers was placed on the 10-day injured list with neck nerve irritation, and the Houston Astros are now left scrambling to find a pitcher who can handle the workload.
With Justin Verlander on the injured list and the bullpen full of inexperienced, young arms, some thought the Astros would make a trade at the deadline. Instead, first-year general manager James Click decided to sit on his hands and as the final sands of time ran through the hourglass, no new players were acquired.
The Astros were just swept out of Los Angeles by the Angels. A four-game series gone awry. Astros pitchers gave up 32 runs over the weekend.
With a record of 21-19, the Astros are now just three games ahead of the hard-charging Seattle Mariners for second place in the division.
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Right now the Astros lack the pitching depth to stop a losing streak or have multiple starters who can go deep into games. Zack Greinke is carrying the starting rotation and Cristian Javier has been impressive as well. Framber Valdez has been inconsistent and now Lance McCullers Jr. is injured.
Jose Urquidy is fresh off a stay on the injured list himself, though he failed to pitch past the fourth inning in his first start.
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There is no timeline for how long McCullers will be sidelined. One thing is for sure, the Astros are limping across the finish line with a patchwork pitching staff.