Houston Astros’ offense once again in short supply as Tampa Bay Rays win another tight game

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A second straight game without Yordan Alvarez reinforced a reality. The Houston Astros need more consistent sources of offense, with time running short for them to emerge.

A lineup missing its leading threat mustered five hits in a 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, undermining a determined start by right-hander Peter Lambert and ensuring a series loss to the American League’s first playoff entrant at Tropicana Field.

The Astros, who entered with the fifth-fewest runs in the majors since the Aug. 3 trade deadline, scored three or fewer for the 21st time in 35 games in that stretch. The offensive downturn might be presenting a direr threat to their playoff hopes if not for an inept division. The loss left Houston with a 2 ½-game AL West lead over the Rangers, who entered the day four games under .500, pending Texas’ result.

The Astros are 75-74 with 13 games remaining on their schedule. Yainer Diaz had three of their five hits Saturday, including a run-scoring single in the sixth inning. Isaac Paredes’ solo home run in the first against Rays starter Ian Seymour, who worked six strong frames, provided their only other run. Houston hitters were 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded six men on base.

The first was Seymour’s rockiest inning, as three straight batters reached. Daulton Varsho and Christian Walker struck out to defuse the threat. Richie Palacios’ two-run single wrought the first blemish against Lambert in his six-plus innings. Nick Madrigal broke a 2-2 tie for the Rays with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh.

Jeremy Peña, who entered batting .176 since Aug. 3 and went hitless in his first three at-bats, worked a leadoff walk in the eighth. Three batters combined to see 25 pitches from Ty Johnson, who retired two and ceded to Rays closer Bryan Baker. Diaz squibbed an infield single that moved Peña to third. Varsho struck out swinging at a high fastball to strand him.

Astros hitters totaled 14 strikeouts on the night. Varsho and catcher Christian Vázquez each struck out three times, Peña and Cam Smith each twice. Diaz, Paredes and Jose Altuve produced their five hits. A lineup that has scored three runs over the first 18 innings of this series is sorely missing its top slugger. But the rest of a struggling offense must respond.

How did Peter Lambert pitch?

After working fewer than six innings in each of six starts in August, Lambert has recorded quality starts in his first two outings of September. Houston’s most dependable starter all season was efficient Saturday, completing his first six innings on 76 pitches. He did not walk a batter, struck out four and recorded eight outs via ground ball.

Junior Caminero, the AL home run leader who walked off the Astros on Friday, struck a two-out single in the first inning. Lambert retired his next 10 batters in a row. Outside of a few hitters, the Rays thrive on creating action as an offense over hard contact. Lambert avoided traffic on the basepaths and resulting damage until the fifth.

Victor Mesa Jr. won an eight-pitch battle for a leadoff single. Chandler Simpson lined a hit over Peña at shortstop. Lambert threw out Cedric Mullins on an ill-fated squeeze attempt. But Palacios beat a fastball above the zone for a single to center, scoring two runs. Lambert ended the sixth with a 2-2 tie still intact by inducing a double play from Caminero, letting out a scream on the mound.

With a left-hander warming, the Astros sent Lambert back to the mound to start the seventh. Liam Hicks worked a nine-pitch at-bat and lined a fastball into the right-field corner for a double. He proved the final batter for Lambert, who allowed six hits over six-plus innings and saw Hicks’ run added to his ledger after his exit. Lambert owns a 3.71 ERA across a team-high 145 ⅔ innings.

How offense fared vs. Ian Seymour

Seymour flummoxed the Houston lineup like few pitchers have. The left-hander generated 19 swing-and-misses in six innings, tied for the fourth-most by an opposing pitcher against the Astros this season. Ten of the first 18 batters he faced struck out.

Paredes, his second batter of the game, struck a solo home run. Altuve walked and Diaz singled. Seymour retired his next 16 hitters in a row, nine via strikeout. His changeup induced nine whiffs on 16 swings, complementing his four-seam fastball and sinker.

Just one Astro hit a ball to an outfielder from innings two through five. The top of their lineup arrived for a third look in the sixth. Seymour notched two outs before Altuve drove a high slider for a double. Diaz grounded a single up the middle to score him, forging a 2-2 tie.

The sixth proved Seymour’s final inning. Though 8 of 12 balls put in play against him held exit velocities above 95 mph, the Statcast hard-hit threshold, just four went for hits. The Astros chased out of the zone at a 45% clip and whiffed at a 42% rate against him.

Isaac Paredes keeps producing

For an offense that has fallen off since the trade deadline, Paredes has remained a consistent producer. Paredes entered Saturday with a team-leading 137 wRC+ since Aug. 3, with the Astros scoring the fifth-fewest runs in the majors in that stretch.

Paredes has surpassed slumping shortstop Jeremy Peña in OPS-plus, for the club’s second-highest mark after Yordan Alvarez. In his first at-bat Saturday, Paredes sent a sweeper from Seymour into the left-field seats for his 20th home run of the season.

Paredes became the fourth Astros hitter to reach 20 homers this season, after Alvarez, Christian Walker and Cam Smith. He reached that mark for the fourth time in his career. Paredes’ 83 RBIs this season are his second-most after a 2023 season in which he totaled 31 homers and 98 RBIs with the Rays.

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This article originally published at Houston Astros’ offense once again in short supply as Tampa Bay Rays win another tight game.