Houston Astros Skipper Confident After Important Late Inning Rally

All it takes sometimes is one moment for a season to turn around and the Houston Astros are hoping they just had their moment on Friday night.

Apr 28, 2024; Mexico City, Mexico; Houston Astros manager Joe Espada | Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Astros have not had the season that they and many around the baseball world anticipated after becoming surprise spenders in the winter to bolster their already championship-caliber roster.

Once again seen as a favorite in the American League, that was not the case early on.

They stumbled out of the gate and fell even further after the team was hit hard with the injury bug that forced them to call upon inexperienced pitchers.

Entering Friday's game against the Detroit Tigers, they were 11 games below .500 and needed to put together a strong showing against a team they should beat. The Astros announced some roster changes that should also give them the best chance to win their second series in the month of May.

It looked like that wasn't going to be the case early on, though.

Framber Valdez had a relatively smooth first two frames before he gave up three straight hits, including a two-run double that put Houston in the hole early after three innings.

Normally, that type of deficit wouldn't be something the Astros or their fans would fret over, but this hasn't been their normal type of season, and when they trailed 2-1 entering the eighth inning, there was concern they might have dropped another game.

However, that frame provided a little reminder of what this club has done in the past and what they can do going forward.

Houston scored four runs by way of singles, a walk, a sacrifice fly, and multiple fielder's choice plays where they took advantage of a throwing error.

Manager Joe Espada has been around this team a long time as an assistant and is hoping this is the spark that gets everything turned around.

"We are a really good team, and it's just a matter of us turning the corner and starting to do the small things well. The eighth inning offensively shows what this team can do. Bryan Abreu coming in and shutting the door, that was remarkable. Hader coming in tonight and closing the door, that's the team. That's the Houston Astros right there," he said according to Dawn Klemish of MLB.com.

Throughout their entire early slide, the phrase "it's still early" has been repeated constantly.

That's because it is.

Yes, the Astros are now 10 games under .500, seven games back of first place in their division, and nine games out of the Wild Card, but there is still time for them to make up some ground if they're able to piece together wins.

They've done it in the past.

Now it's time for them to do that right now.