Jake Odorizzi Frustrated with Lack of Trust from Coaching Staff

The Houston Astros are in the midst of their biggest series of the season against the second-place Seattle Mariners. As bizarre as that sounds, especially with two series apiece against the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, that is oddly the case and the Astros needed every win they could get.

Last night, that started with Jake Odorizzi. Odorizzi, an all-star in 2019, had been a very shaky starter for most of the season heading into last night with a 4.32 ERA, a 4.51 SIERA and having never gone past six innings in Houston threads.

Odorizzi made a strong push to go past six innings last night as he pitched very efficiently and was dominant for most of his night. Through four shutout innings, he only needed 43 pitches so he was on pace for a long dominant inning. Then came the fifth inning.

Odorizzi started the fifth off with a line drive single to Luis Torrens but in a 2-0 game, panic didn’t ensue until the next at bat. Jarred Kelenic, who had been struggling mightily against the Astros, smoked a fastball down the line but fortunately for Odorizzi, Kelenic got ahead of it and it was foul. Odorizzi wasn’t as lucky on the next pitch as Kelenic lined a splitter for a double, setting up two runners in scoring position with none out. Odorizzi almost pulled off a Houdini act after getting the next two batters to pop out and prevent Torrens, who has a sprint speed of 26.7 feet per second, from scoring. Odorizzi fell a strike short of the feat when he gave up a two-strike double to J.P. Crawford to tie the game. Odorizzi retired the next batter on one pitch to end the fifth.

Despite still being on a fairly efficient pitch count at 66 pitches after five innings, Astros manager Dusty Baker decided that Odorizzi’s night was done and went with right hander Yimi Garcia in the sixth. The move instantly backfired as the first batter Garcia faced took him 409 feet for a go-ahead solo homerun. The score remained the same until Torrens drove a single in the ninth inning to drive in former Astro Abraham Toro to put the Mariners up two.

With the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox having already lost their games, the Mariners were three outs away from a huge victory in a crucial playoff race and went with the sure-handed Paul Sewald to close the game. Heading into the outing, Sewald hadn’t given up a run against the Astros.

Sewald struggled early with his command as he went into a full count with both Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley to start the inning. He walked Altuve and Brantley was a few feet away from tying the game up. Sewald then fell behind to Alex Bregman for his third consecutive three ball count to start the inning. Bregman made him pay. To prevent walking the tying run on base, Sewald threw a 3-1 fastball that Bregman absolutely punished and suddenly it was a whole new ballgame.

Despite having an unearned runner start the tenth inning at second base, Ryne Stanek shut down the Mariners with a 1-2-3 tenth inning. Carlos Correa walked it off on the fourth pitch he saw with a ground rule double to score Yulieski Gurriel and the Astros won 5-4. The story doesn’t end there. After the game, Odorizzi voiced frustration about being removed from the game after five innings.

“I think it’s bullsh*t,” Odorizzi said in response to being asked about his five inning limit, “It’s not like I just made my debut yesterday. [I’ve] been doing this for a while.” It’s salient to note that opponents have hit much better their third time around against Odorizzi this season. The opponent batting average in the third time through the lineup in comparison to the second time jumps from .233 to .395. Additionally, the first batter that Odorizzi faced a third time was Crawford who drove in that two-run double in the fifth.

This morning, Astros’ general manager James Click joined a radio interview and spoke on the incident. “I understand his frustration. I think beyond everything else it just shows you what a competitor he is and you want guys like that on your team,” he said.

Baker voiced his side of the decision before today’s game. “I want all these guys to go as deep as they can in the games but as a manager, you’re full of tough decisions. I have to do what I think is best for the team now and in the long run,” Baker explained.

Odorizzi, Baker and pitching coach Brent Strom met up earlier today and tensions seem to have dropped immensely.

“It’s not [an] issue moving forward. I told them that it’s not changing my views of anything so it’s a non issue for me. I’m perfectly fine today. We got to talk about it. It’s what adults do. We handled it like men.” Odorizzi said.