The Houston Astros’ recent luck with starting pitchers is so bad that even guys called up from the minors to fill in are getting hurt.
Jake Bloss made his Major League debut on Friday night, promoted from Double-A Corpus Christi to fill an open spot in Houston’s rotation. Facing the Baltimore Orioles, Bloss pitched 3 2/3 innings earlier leave the game with a visible injury.
After the Astros’ 14–11 win, the team said Bloss was dealing with “discomfort in the right shoulder,” telling reporters he felt a “cramp” in his right shoulder but did not believe it was serious.
However, Bloss was placed on the injured list on Saturday. Although the Astros did not announce a specific injury, said manager Joe Espada the pitcher heads back to Houston to be examined by team doctors and undergo imaging.
Espada said he acted quickly to pull Bloss from Friday’s game when he noticed a dip in the rookie’s speed. His final pitch – a fastball – was clocked at 90 miles per hour.
“I’ve never seen him pitch, so I’m trying to read his mannerisms the first few innings,” Espada told reporters, via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. “You try to make sure that what he did there in the fourth innings was something he did in previous innings. In that one he reached out his arm and made a strange movement, and the velo was down, and gave me the direction to go out and check him out.”
Bloss threw 79 pitches and allowed two runs and six hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
The rookie right-hander joins a busy list of injured starting pitchers for the Astros, including Jose Urquidy and Cristian Javier, both of whom underwent reconstructive Tommy John surgery earlier this month. Justin Verlander has also been on the IL this week with neck problems. Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia have yet to pitch this season, but hope to rejoin the team after the All-Star break.
Who will take the fifth spot in the Astros’ rotation has not yet been decided, but relievers Luis Contreras and Bryan King have been called up on Saturday. That could mean Espada opts for a bullpen start, even though Houston has two days off next week before Friday’s game against the New York Mets.
