Three takeaways from an otherwise encouraging Astros homestand that ended with a thud

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HOUSTON — Baseball's most expensive bullpen had already blown its eighth save when its door swung open for the ninth inning of Sunday's homestand finale. The Houston Astros chose not to play Josh Hader's fire-themed entrance experience while he jogged to the mound, perhaps mindful that it loses some luster in non-save situations.

Hader still managed to ignite a combustion. Houston's heralded offseason addition prolonged his awful first impression while its vaunted back end of the bullpen again exposed itself as a vulnerability. A series win disappeared because of it, ending an otherwise encouraging homestand excruciatingly.

The Astros still finished 3-3 against two first-place teams: the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Guardians. Two of the losses arrived by one run. Houston has lost nine of its 10 one-run games this season, a sobering statistic for a team that sits 10 games below .500. Here are three takeaways from the homestand.

The brutal back end of Houston's bullpen

Hader, Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly have a 1.55 WHIP and a 5.09 ERA across their first 46 innings, thrusting a perceived team strength into complete disarray. Abreu and Pressly have teamed to blow three saves. Hader, the $95 million man, has as many losses as saves.

"It sucks," Astros manager Joe Espada said. "That's the way you plan for the game, and you get there and have the guys that you believe in. I keep believing in those guys because those guys are really good. We just have to get the job done, have to put guys away. We're better than that."

Espada is giving the baseball to three of the sport's best relievers. That they're surrounded by inexperience only complicates the situation. Not enough depth exists for, say, Abreu to work out his troubles in lower-leverage spots. Houston isn't in a position record-wise, either, to experiment with such a setup.

Abreu's ineffectiveness stretches back to spring training. He and team officials insist he's healthy and the bad start is a byproduct of poor mechanics. That Abreu made 81 appearances last season might be worth remembering, too.

Pitching the eighth inning Sunday with Pressly unavailable, Abreu hit Dylan Moore with his fifth pitch, balked him to second base and watched him score the tying run on a bloop single by light-hitting third baseman Luis Urías.

Moore is the third batter Abreu has hit this season. Add in 11 walks and Abreu has given 14 free bases across 16 appearances. Opponents have an .821 OPS against him after he limited them to a .569 mark in 2022 and a .560 clip last season.

Abreu's blown save meant Hader would pitch the ninth inning of a 4-4 game. After appearing in 20 tie games across the past two seasons, Hader has already pitched in five this year. Hader downplayed that a lack of true save situations affects him but acknowledged hitters alter their approach against him when their teams are tied or ahead.

Cal Raleigh with a solo shot to put the @Mariners on top! pic.twitter.com/omsTJX5FrT

— MLB (@MLB) May 5, 2024

Cal Raleigh's go-ahead solo home run inflated Hader's ERA to 6.14. In 15 appearances as an Astro, Hader has permitted 10 earned runs, two more than he allowed all last season.

"It's baseball, man," Hader said. "Nothing's ever easy in this game. You can write it up and say 'on paper,' and it always looks easier. But you have to go out there and do what you do and execute. Obviously, it hasn't fallen our way."

Why is Alex Bregman still hitting cleanup?

Another hitless showing Saturday capped the most frustrating 30 games of Bregman's major-league career. His .554 OPS is the lowest of any 30-game stretch since debuting in 2016. According to Baseball Reference, he finished it worth -0.5 Wins Above Replacement. The malaise forced Espada to move Bregman out of the cleanup spot April 24, a shakeup that lasted all of six games.

Bregman returned to the cleanup spot for Houston's three-game series against the Mariners. He finished 2-for-9 but sensed a breakthrough after hitting three balls harder than 98 mph during Sunday's loss.

"I felt really good all series long," said Bregman, who walked three times against Seattle. "For me, I feel like once the ball leaves your bat, you can't do anything about it. You try to square it up as many times as possible, and eventually everything will even out. Every day it's getting closer and closer. I felt great in every at-bat today."

Bregman still sports a .553 OPS after 134 plate appearances. Asked before Sunday's game whether he considered moving Bregman out of the top four in his batting order, Espada replied, "No, not yet."

Espada acknowledged Bregman's extensive history of rebounding from brutal starts but must also consider how any adjustment will impact the rest of Houston's lineup. One logical adjustment could be moving Jeremy Peña past Bregman and higher in the batting order, but Espada is wary of disturbing Peña's rhythm during a torrid start to his season.

"I think that's why he's having the year he's having. He's in a spot where he's comfortable and confident. I don't want to mess around with that," Espada said. "We need somebody behind our top four to drive those guys in and continue to move our offense forward. I think that's why he's having some success — he likes that five or six spot."

The first look at Joey Loperfido

Loperfido stepped in for his second major-league plate appearance with the bases loaded in a tied game. Fans gave him a standing ovation. Some in the upper decks even chanted his name, treatment often reserved for a prospect promoted to transform a team.

Loperfido isn't here to launch a new era of Astros baseball, but his arrival afforded a jolt to a teetering team in need of one. Swapping him for the struggling José Abreu improved Houston's athleticism, offered more balance to its bench and delivered the offensive upside Abreu could not.

Expecting Loperfido to solve everything ailing this team is foolish, and anyone who thought he would instantly be given an everyday role learned this week that he won't. Those who hailed him as a solution at first base paid no attention to his playing time at Triple-A Sugar Land — he started there just four times in his final 16 games — and ignored the team's repeated insistence that Loperfido is best suited as an outfielder.

That Espada chose Mauricio Dubón to play first base over Loperfido in the 10th inning of Wednesday's game again signals the lack of comfort. Jon Singleton's continued emergence might mean Loperfido remains in the outfield full time, but he has been working with bench coach Omar López on the intricacies of first base. Espada pinch hit for him twice in the Mariners series when Seattle summoned a left-handed reliever, too, opting for a better platoon matchup over testing a prospect in a tight spot.

Joey Loperfido is coming in with the cannon 🤯

(MLB x @Casamigos) pic.twitter.com/mGUrbELfMk

— MLB (@MLB) May 2, 2024

Loperfido started thrice in left field and twice in center. His sparkling barehanded play on a Crawford Boxes carom during Tuesday's game demonstrated some of his defensive prowess. So did a daring catch along the left-field line during Friday's win, one in which he avoided a grisly collision with Peña.

Clean defense is appreciated, but almost all of Loperfido's value to the major-league team is tied to his bat. He finished his first homestand with four singles in 15 at-bats. Loperfido saw 69 pitches in his first exposure to major-league pitching. He swung at 31 of them. That Loperfido struck out seven times in five games should come as no surprise — he punched out 37 times in 101 Triple-A at-bats before his promotion — but the aggression and quality of his at-bats still impressed the Astros.

(Photo of Josh Hader: Kevin M. Cox / Associated Press)