Houston will wrap up its four-game series at Baltimore on Sunday afternoon. The Astros were shutout in a pair of losses to open the series, including a 6-0 final on Friday. This story was published prior to Saturday night’s game.
Houston has only lost consecutive games twice over the past month, with both occurrences coming against Baltimore. The Astros dropped two straight games to Baltimore on Aug. 26 and 27, and they also lost the first two games of this series. They had won 10 of their last 11 games coming into this series, including a four-game winning streak. Houston will wrap up the road portion of its schedule on Sunday before returning home for an eight-game homestand. The Astros are 5.5 games back of the Dodgers for the best record in baseball and are six games ahead of the Yankees for the best record in the American League.
Best in the West. pic.twitter.com/a2aHO2NzOg
— Houston Astros (@astros) September 20, 2022
The Astros have been a solid offensive team this season, ranked No. 13 with a batting average of .246. Second baseman Jose Altuve leads the way with 148 hits, while third baseman Alex Bregman has 135 hits. They are facing a Baltimore pitching staff that is No. 13 with an ERA of 3.86. Right-handed pitcher Cristian Javier is expected to start for Houston on Sunday. He picked up a win on Tuesday at Tampa Bay, striking out six batters in five shutout innings. Javier held the Rays hitless through the first 4.2 innings and recorded his second straight scoreless outing. He has posted 11 consecutive starts with three earned runs or fewer, and he has a 1.86 ERA since the beginning of August.