Ronel

Blanco

Astros’ general manager Dana Brown told reporters on Thursday that Blanco is seeking a second opinion on his injured elbow and the team would have a better feel for his status after that examination. It sounds like he’s going to be shelved for a while. No word yet on the corresponding move or how the Astros plan to fill his spot in the rotation.

That’s never good news. We’ll probably have news later this week on how that evaluation went, but a trip to the injured list seems likely for Blanco. The Astros’ rotation is already without Spencer Arrighetti, J.P. France, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, and Hayden Wesneski, so losing Blanco would be a big blow. That would likely mean Brandon Walter, who pitched well on Tuesday, could get a chance to have a longer stay in the Astros rotation with AJ Blubaugh and Colton Gordon battling for the other spot.

Blanco shut out the Reds for eight innings in his last start, but outings like tonight have been the norm for him this year. In fact, he’s given up exactly three runs in five of his nine starts while going 3-4 with a 4.10 ERA. He’ll pitch at home against the Mariners next time out.

Blanco gave up two hits, walked one and struck out 11. It was a dominant performance for the 31-year-old right-hander. While Blanco had a 2.80 ERA last year, his xFIP was 4.09. This year, his ERA is 4.04 and his xFIP is 4.06 after eight starts. Blanco is a solid pitcher with more strikeouts (43) than innings pitched (42 1/3) this year, but it’s unlikely he’ll go on another run to get his ERA down under 3.00. Blanco is lined up to face the Rangers on the road next weekend.

Blanco was solid for five of six innings, but the third inning was anything but. He gave up an RBI single to William Contreras and a two-run homer to Christian Yelich in that frame. Outside of that it was solid for the 31-year-old, but he received just a single run of support. Blanco will pitch again Sunday versus the Reds if there’s no change to the rotation order.

Gusto has looked outstanding this season in his first big-league opportunity, recording a strong 3.00 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 29/6 K/BB ratio across 27 innings in eight appearances. The Astros are going to skip his next start on Tuesday against the Brewers with Lance McCullers Jr. (elbow) rejoining the rotation, but he’ll be available in a bulk relief capacity over the next few days. It’ll be Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Framber Valdez starting the three games against Milwaukee. He figures to take the ball at some point later next week after Houston transitions back to a six-man rotation.

Blanco allowed only three hits, but two of those hits were homers. The right-hander was able to strike out six against two walks while locating 52-of-84 pitches for strikes. Blanco has not worked deeper than five innings in any of his outings this year, but he’s avoided the disastrous start. He walked two while striking out four and seeing his ERA rise to a still-healthy 3.34. Blanco will try to keep the ball in the park in his next start, which would seem likely to come against the Brewers.

The right-hander walked a pair while striking out three batters on the night. The lone tally against him came on a solo homer by Nathan Lukes in the third inning. Blanco got 12 swings and misses on 93 pitches on the evening, six of them on his slider, while posting a solid CSW of 29 percent. He’ll see if he can carry over the momentum from this outstanding outing as he carries a 5.01 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and a 20/12 K/BB ratio (23 1/3 innings) into Monday’s showdown against the Tigers.

All of the runs came in the fifth, which opened with a bunt single, another single and then a homer. Although he generated 11 missed swings today, Blanco struck out only one batter. He still hasn’t lasted more than five innings in any of his starts, and he’s 1-2 with a 6.48 ERA after the loss today. He’s set to face the Blue Jays next.

This was Blanco’s best start of the season results wise by far, but he still faced some of the same challenges that have caused him to start slow. The Angels had plenty of traffic on the bases as Blanco struggled to spot his slider against this right-handed heavy lineup. However, he worked his curveball well as a pitch he could consistently throw in the zone and stole seven called strikes with it and then mixed his pitches well when ahead in the count to set down what was a red-hot Angels lineup. This was a huge step in the right direction and he’ll look to build on it in his next scheduled start against the Cardinals.