Mike Fiers didn’t throw a no-hitter, but he again looked like a rather formidable pitcher on a Houston Astros staff that continues to put up amazing numbers.
Fiers extended the Astros' stretch of starts with two or fewer earned runs allowed to 17 in the past 19 in a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins.
Fiers’ hitless streak ended at 12 innings, which the Elias Sports Bureau notes is the longest by an Astros pitcher since Mike Scott had a 16-inning streak (including a division-clinching no-hitter against the Giants) in 1986.
Fiers has allowed no earned runs or one earned run in four straight starts since he allowed six runs in his Astros debut. He has a 0.67 ERA in that span.
What has been the key to Fiers’ success?
Fiers has avoided hard-hit contact during this standout stretch. He had a 39 percent ground-ball rate and 22 percent line-drive rate in his first 22 starts this season. But in his past four, those rates are 54 percent and 13 percent.
The Astros defense has done its part behind Fiers. When he has yielded a ground ball, the Astros have turned it into at least one out 81 percent of the time in the past four games (they got outs on six of eight Saturday, including a double play). Prior to that, Fiers’ out rate on ground balls was 67 percent.
One streak down, maybe another brewing
The pitcher who replaced Fiers, middle reliever Will Harris, now has a 6 1/3-inning hitless streak over his past six appearances. He lowered his ERA to 1.42 and his WHIP to 0.84 with a scoreless seventh inning.
At-bat of the game: Sano versus Fiers, Sano versus Neshek
Fiers got a big strikeout of Miguel Sano in the sixth inning to squash a scoring threat. In that at-bat, Fiers attacked Sano’s weakness -- the very top of the strike zone -- and got him to strike out on a 3-2 fastball.
Sano is 1-for-29 in at-bats that end with a pitch in the upper-third of the strike zone or above the zone.
Sano had been great in the previous four games, as he went 6-for-18 with two homers and six RBIs, but the Astros got him out three times in four plate appearances Saturday.
The next big at-bat of the game came with Fiers out, as the Twins brought Sano to the plate as the tying run against Pat Neshek.
Neshek flipped three sliders to Sano, who swung and missed at the first, took the second and waved at the third, which was practically in the other batters’ box.
Sano has swung at 62 sliders from right-handed pitchers and missed 35 of them (a 57 percent miss rate).
As good as Sano has been, he has some adjustments to make with his swing. His miss rate of 40 percent is the highest in the majors among those with at least 200 plate appearances this season.
