OAKLAND, Calif. — Before the bullpen gave away another game on Sunday, Carlos Correa came to bat in the seventh inning. The Astros trailed the Angels by two runs. Correa coaxed a 3-0 count against Félix Peña, forcing the reliever to throw two fastballs. Correa took the first. He crushed the second.
The baseball flew far into the Anaheim afternoon. It bounced between the rock structures beyond the left-field fence at Angel Stadium. Statcast measured the blast at 461 feet.
“It felt like I was getting closer to where I want to be, to hit for more power,” Correa said. “I haven’t been able to do that early this year, so I’ve been trying to find that swing, that stroke, that allows me to drive the ball more consistently.”
Correa brought the Astros within one run. An abysmal performance by the bullpen soon rendered his home run meaningless.
The swing was a sample of what the Astros miss most this season and what this club must unleash if it harbors any hope of a deep postseason run. Only one year ago, the lineup set a major league record with a .495 slugging percentage. It struck a franchise-record 288 home runs, too. Eight of nine everyday players returned for 2020.
Thursday’s loss to Oakland lowered the Astros’ slugging percentage to .418. Their OPS is .735, 10 points below the league average.
Though they’re scoring more than five runs per game, Houston’s offense is pedestrian at best and sapped of its power.The Astros had seven hitters slug .500 or higher last season. Forty-five games into 2020, there are two such slugging percentages in their lineup.
Alex Bregman and George Springer each sport slugging percentages more than 100 points lower than last season. José Altuve’s .322 mark is 278 points lower than his .550 clip last year. Correa has a .413 slugging percentage after posting a .568 slug in 2019.
Finding one distinct reason for the disappearance is impossible. The Astros have dealt with a deluge of injuries. Altuve, Bregman and Michael Brantley have spent time on the injured list. Reigning American League Rookie of the Year Yordan Alvarez took eight at-bats before undergoing season-ending knee surgery. Missing him obviously ails this offense.
“Your power numbers are definitely going to be down when you got those guys out of the lineup,” manager Dusty Baker said. “That’s a major part of it. Plus, when the hitters only get two weeks to get ready, the pitchers were ahead of them. Now, you’re seeing the hitters catching up. What fooled them in August is not fooling them in September. Guys are having better at-bats, they’re not fooled as much.”
Correa, Springer and Gurriel are three of the five Astros who’ve taken at least 160 plate appearances. None has spent time on the injured list, though Springer has dealt with a wrist problem since August. All three men finished 2019 with an OPS above .880. Now, only Springer has one over .800.
Players around the league assign some blame to the short summer camp ramp-up. The Astros acknowledge that was difficult, too. Pitchers entered the season ahead of hitters, making the first month or so of play an offensively-challenging time.
“(We) had less at-bats to get ready and make adjustments when the stats still don’t count,” Correa said.
Correa curiously claimed another cause for the power struggle — one the Astros had a direct influence in creating.
“The fact that we can’t watch video in between at-bats to make in-game adjustments every single at-bat, I think that plays a huge role,” Correa said. “You have to go with the feel and you’re not seeing what you’re doing. You might think that you’re striding a certain way and you’re striding a different way, or your hands are here or there, so you aren’t able to make those adjustments in-game."
Teams are restricted from visiting their team’s replay rooms during the 2020 season and, therefore, cannot watch video between at-bats to make in-game adjustments. Technically, it is a part of coronavirus health and safety protocols.
But, after the Astros and Red Sox sign-stealing scandals, Major League Baseball has promised stricter rules governing the replay rooms and in-game video going forward. Rays manager Kevin Cash excoriated the policy in August. Cubs infielder Javy Báez echoed it this week.
“To be honest, it sucks,” Báez told reporters. “We didn’t cheat. We’re not cheating and we got to pay for all this.”
The Astros appear to be paying, too. They’ve pasted some poor teams and withered against good ones. In 15 games against teams currently at or above .500, Houston has taken 527 plate appearances and struck 93 hits. Only 35 garnered extra bases.
“I think if you look around the league, there’s a lot of people that aren’t hitting. I don’t know if it’s due to the long layoff or what it is, but I think we’re top of the league in runs scored,” Bregman said. “I think we’ve scored a lot of runs and can always continue to get better. I think the sample size that has been shown is very small for anyone to be panicking about power production.”
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