ANAHEIM — Given the instability of the Astros’ starting rotation, the club desperately needed Cristian Javier to follow the lead set by Staff star Framber Valdez a night earlier. Valdez hit 12 batters in eight innings on Tuesday to end the Astros’ three-game losing streak, and Javier hit 11 in six innings in Wednesday afternoon’s 5-4 win over the Angels at Angel Stadium.
With that, the Astros climbed back above .500 and won their first series since playing away in late April, going 5-1 over the Braves and Rays — a series of games that caught the attention of the rest of baseball and the defending champions are as dangerous as ever. Or are you?
The Astros responded by losing six of their next nine games and falling below .500, also losing two key starting players to injury — Jose Urquidy to a shoulder injury that keeps him out until the All-Star break, and Luis’ surgery from Garcia after Tommy John.
Both are major setbacks that catapulted rookie JP France into the big leagues for the first time and brought untried Brandon Bielak into the rotation. That made Valdez and Javier’s stellar performances so crucial that the Astros needed their proven pitching abilities to deliver.
“We needed it badly,” said Astros manager Dusty Baker. “We won the series, we’re back at 3-3 on this road trip and we’re going to take a day off and then on to Chicago.”
Javier (3-1) allowed three hits, two runs and a walk and had double-digit strikeouts in eight starts for the second time this year. He produced 24 swings and misses, relying mostly on his fastball-slider combo. His only blemish came in the second inning when he allowed Hunter Renfroe a two-run home run.
“Javi was good,” Baker said. “He had his high fastball going and he just made one mistake. The homer was a hanging slider, but otherwise it was good. He was excellent.”
Javier started the game by successively knocking out Taylor Ward, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani and ended his outing by repeating that feat in the sixth inning. The top three hitters in the Angels lineup was a combined 0 of 9 against Javier with seven strikeouts.
“When I see the ball getting good positions, that’s the first thing that tells me the pitch feels good – and so does the swings of the batsmen,” said Javier.
Javier’s “Invisi-Ball” fastball hit a top speed of 94.3mph – Valdez hit 98mph on Tuesday – and appears to be much faster for the batsmen due to his rising action. He scored four hits with sliders and seven hits with his ascending fastball.
“It’s just so much fun,” said Angels manager Phil Nevin. “Really, its release point is a little lower than most and the fastball has so much drive. He can hit the top rail really consistently, which not many guys can do. It’s just a tough pitch. In my day we said, “Put the ball down,” and as the boys swung up through the pitches, we didn’t understand why. But with today’s technology, we know that the pitch has grip and it looks like it’s in a certain spot, but it’s not. It is of course a really difficult playing field.”
The Astros took advantage of weak fourth-round defense and sent ten batters on the plate, scoring four goals. A two-run single by Jeremy Peña gave Houston a 5-2 lead. Javier knocked out 13 of the last 14 batters he faced and the Astros survived a two-run home run by Ohtani in the ninth game against Ryan Pressly.
The Astros’ last eight games have been decided by two runs or fewer, and they’ve won 3-5 in that span. Wednesday was her second one-run win on the road this year. They defeated the Rays 1-0 in St. Petersburg on April 26.
“We persevered,” Baker said. “You never know which run is going to be the winner and it feels good to win a one-run game away from home.”