Astros need to preserve their bullpen. Will they take the reins off Cristian Javier or Ethan Pecko?

Ethan Pecko entered his fifth inning Saturday unscored upon but with a reliever warming behind him in the Houston Astros‘ bullpen. Three batters later, his outing ended. Tim Tawa cued an infield hit into an open right side. Pecko pounced on a Ryan Waldschmidt tapper before Lars Nootbaar lined a clean single.

Nootbaar occupied the leadoff spot in the Diamondbacks’ lineup and was facing Pecko for a third time in the game. His single put the potential tying run on base, brought manager Joe Espada out to remove his starter and reinforced an issue within Houston’s rotation with 19 games left in a postseason race.

Two of five starters the Astros are deploying – Cristian Javier and Pecko, the right-handed prospect – are under tighter reins, with Houston hesitant to have them face opposing lineups a third time. Javier hasn’t faced more than 19 batters in any of his past four outings, one of which he pitched in bulk relief.

Having three starters who will work deeper – Hunter Brown, Peter Lambert and Hayden Wesneski – can mitigate that usage somewhat. But it puts added pressure on those starters to cover innings and protect the bullpen, and on the bullpen to shoulder a significant workload at least two out of five (or six) days.

How sustainable that is down the stretch, for a club with a three-game division lead and 19 games left in the regular season, is a question. The bullpen has been arguably the Astros’ biggest strength, yet it’s also at less than full capacity, even with expanded rosters offering an extra spot on the pitching staff.

Steven Okert’s hamstring injury leaves the unit without a key setup man. Tatsuya Imai, rarely being used, occupies a spot. So does Ronel Blanco, who was recalled from Triple-A last week for a spot start and got through four innings. The current bullpen is essentially a seven-man complement as a result.

The Astros conclude a stretch of playing 13 days in a row on Sunday and will not play more than six days in a row the rest of the season. That should allow them more flexibility with structuring the rotation and perhaps to allocate another roster spot for a traditional reliever in the final weeks.

Still, a formula of brief starts in two-fifths of games feels tenuous. Houston entered Friday’s game against Arizona, for example, with its bullpen relatively rested after it received back-to-back quality starts from Wesneski and Brown the previous two days – the first time that had happened in a month.

Javier worked five innings Friday night, allowed one run on one hit and struck out eight. With Javier at 79 pitches, the Astros still went to their bullpen with a two-run lead in the sixth. Four of their top current leverage arms – Josh Hader, Bryan Abreu, Bennett Sousa and Enyel De Los Santos – finished a 3-1 win.

“The plan was let’s get him five (innings), 80-85 (pitches),” Espada said of Javier after Friday’s win. “That was the game plan, and he did a nice job. But the plan is, moving forward, can we see more.”

2026 ASTROS STATS

Team Totals.240.31548016451153210181866144721168431964Alvarez.315.43450493159291379499108102Correa.279.3691222234803161826101Allen.275.319131223650213930205Peña.274.32736969101161174623909110Diaz.265.294275327312011341046023Paredes.259.3584945812825118796174007Shewmake.256.2727810204039213002Delgado.243.3003749101437002Altuve.242.30544663108192154439101435Walker.227.30050764115251247744132002Harris.226.2863147010426200Loperfido.216.3141021322711121431111Smith.214.28044857961661750371241025Meyers.213.2681411530703111031120Dezenzo.213.2807511164013731101Vázquez.211.2672282248707251849102Trammell.206.2912182745927202275432Wade.204.3171081522503171832000Matthews.197.2502082341517221571441Varsho.178.24110781931312924200Price.167.2311212100016001Spence.162.24437461003315011Cole.157.18951481038121001Johnson.143.2941412000023000Whitcomb.130.16723230025111000Velázquez.118.1581712001518001Salazar.056.2271801000133000

___

Team Totals73704.52143143451270.111306826381825911256Meyers000.001001000000Hader410.694002339.1143311153Santa011.17100015.1862169VanWey101.505006521005Okert622.13681067.245171671468Blubaugh523.07550188683230113589Wesneski413.1877039.228141421433Brown533.311616087673432104693Pearson103.601601201610811216Lambert873.6624240132.210956541356131Abreu533.7657085536252374069De Los Santos334.32620566.261363281861Ullola004.504006433219Arrighetti754.601717088684745125087King244.6752165458312881944Teng574.763010073.2694339103373Pecko105.1944017.116111041011Roa015.197008.21055176Imai645.351915070.257424294788Bolton015.408312021121231422Sousa135.8726102327171531525Javier255.98149049.255333392250Burrows495.991817094.21126963213575Blanco016.5965027.125202071523McCullers236.8688039.138323072243Murray007.4380013.1191111178Weiss037.629202635242282030France008.103006.2666154Salazar009.001001111100Alexander119.3342018.12119194814Gordon0011.574109.12112126311Muñoz0015.753004777366Wade0018.001001322100

Saturday illustrated why. Pecko got Houston into the fifth with a 2-0 lead. With one out and the tying run on base, Espada turned to a bullpen that was not at full strength. Sousa and Abreu had both pitched the previous two days, likely making them unavailable. Okert’s mix of durability and results is a big absence.

Instead, after extracting five outs from De Los Santos, the Astros called on Kai-Wei Teng in the seventh to face the bottom of Arizona’s lineup with a 3-1 lead. Teng walked two of the three batters he faced. That pressed AJ Blubaugh, warming for the top of the order, into a jam and a multi-inning appearance.

Blubaugh escaped the seventh with a 3-2 lead intact, but Ketel Marte erased it with a home run against him in the eighth. The Astros went on to fall 4-3 in 10 innings with their lineup going scoreless after the fifth. They’ve scored three or fewer runs in seven of their last 11 games.

Their 7-4 record in that stretch reflects the performance of their pitching staff and the need to preserve key arms – to what extent possible – amid a playoff push. Javier’s start Friday perhaps offered optimism that the Astros could try to extend him further. Just one of his nine starts has exceeded five innings.

Javier has a far longer track record than Pecko, who is pitching admirably since Houston plugged him into a rotation in need. Pecko has harnessed his command better in his past two starts, allowing three runs in 9 ⅓ innings in them, but has still finished the fifth just once. He walked one in 4 ⅓ innings Saturday.

“I definitely feel more comfortable,” Pecko said. “I feel like I’m getting in-zone better. … Felt like the pitch count was lower and I could have kept going if that’s the direction we went. But obviously, I don’t make those choices, I just kind of pitch until the ball gets taken from me. But I feel like I’m limiting hard contact and progressing well.

“Obviously, as a starter you want to eat as many innings as possible and help the bullpen out and I didn’t do that today. So it’s definitely a tough pill to swallow, but just move on and go back next week.”

Espada credited the Diamondbacks with driving up Pecko’s pitch count but said he would “like to see him be more aggressive early in the count.”

“If he gets strike one, I feel like he has better control of the at-bat. Falls behind, the advantage goes to the hitters,” Espada said. “That’s something that he’s working towards. But I think that’s going to be the difference between him pitching late into a game and being more efficient and getting quicker outs. But the stuff continues to be good. He’s got the arsenal definitely to pitch at this level and be successful.”

Propping up a staff does not fall on a 24-year-old prospect, so the Astros must welcome what production they do get from him while gleaning stability from more experienced arms in a rotation that has worked the eighth-fewest innings in the majors this season. Espada acknowledged as much Friday night, as a season and playoff race enters its final weeks.

“They all want to be part of it and they’re a part of it,” Espada said. “But now we need that extra push to really protect our bullpen and get some quality outings from those guys.”

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This article originally published at Astros need to preserve their bullpen. Will they take the reins off Cristian Javier or Ethan Pecko?.