How Do The Houston Astros KEEP Getting Away With This…

there goes the runner the pitch is swung on and hit high in the air deep to center field McCormick back the Blue Jays were down to their last out and now Toronto leads two to one to begin this 2024 season the Houston Astros were thoroughly underwhelming at the end of May the Astros were firmly entrenched in the third spot in their division and had a record well below 500 Flash Forward to now though and the Houston Astros are un deniably the hottest team in baseball and are just rolling over any other Squad that gets in their way I've spent the last several days deep diving into the Houston Astro season and believe that I have uncovered the secret to the Houston Astro success and honestly folks it is freaking insane what's up folks and welcome back to the channel in this one we're going to be talking about how the Houston Astros are doing it again and what is fueling this ridiculous stretch of baseball that are on right now before we get into it I encourage you guys to hit the like and smash the Subscribe button if you enjoy baseball content and discussion so you don't miss any future videos all right folks let's get into it so just over a month ago I posted this video right here dissecting the Houston Astro season and discussing what at that point was just starting to turn things around for them in that video I spent a lot of time crediting the offense and talking about how often times they were just slugging that team to Victory and whilst that video at the time was accurate I do need to make an amendment because right now it is abundantly clear that if anyone on the Houston Astros deserves their flowers then it's Josh Miller wait a minute who are you Josh Miller for those who don't know is the pitching coach for the Houston Astros but it honestly might be better to start referring to him as a pitching wizard Miller's been in this role with the Houston Astros for several seasons now has always done a very good job but this year in particular he is reaching a new height to best demonstrate just how impressive he has been and what it's meant for the Houston Astros on the field I think that we need to talk about usus Kikuchi y Kikuchi is a strong Lefty starter who's been in the MLB for six years now and was one of the biggest trade Acquisitions for the Houston Astros at the trade deadline prior to coming over to Houston us Kikuchi was pitching to the tune of a four .75 erra and a whip of 1.34 numbers that were honestly pretty close to his career averages now those stats to me scream fourth or fifth pitcher but clearly the Houston Astros felt differently the Astros gave up an absolute Hall to get us Kikuchi and effectively the entire baseball Community was screaming at the top of their lungs that they just got fleeced by Toronto but that's only because we didn't know what Josh Miller had up his sleeve you say Kikuchi is currently four starts in with the Houston Astros and over 22.1 Innings pitched has a record of 2 and0 an erra of 2.42 a FIP of 3.07 and a whip of 1.03 what the actual hell now I know what many of you are probably thinking oh it's a small sample size it's probably just a fluke we shouldn't give this too much weight and while I agree that it has been a small sample size what he's been doing recently is anything but fluky Jay Journal writes there were a couple of things the Astros had the sixth year MLB player do in his first 11 strikeout start after that August second outing Kikuchi told the Houston Chronicles Matt Kara that the coaching staff encouraged him to use his change up throwing the offspeed offering 26.3% in the start led to a dominant performance against a familiar foe in the Tampa Bay Rays that's a higher usage than he ever came close to in Toronto and that is just the beginning Kikuchi also used his slider more in both Houston starts 31.6% and 34% his high in Toronto was 25% which he hit twice not only did he use the pitch more but he used it more effectively he garnered a 125 average against and a 60% whiff rate against the Rays and then a zero average against and a 27.8% whiff rate against the Rangers legitimately overnight usay Kikuchi went from pitching like a fourth or fifth starter to playing like an Ace and all of it has got to do with Josh Miller and of course us Kikuchi is not the only one over the last 30 days the Astros pitching is ranked third in MLB with an erra of 3.16 a massive reason why they're currently 8 and2 in their last 10 they are also doing all of that without future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander who should be coming back very soon this Astros team is absolutely cooking right now and if I was any other Squad in MLB then I would not want to have to be the one to run into them in the postseason but folks let me know what you think about all this in the comments down below thank you so much for watching and I will catch you next time