Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
So … methinks Jarred Cosart really wants to stick around the bigs with the Houston Astros, yes?
That is going to sound a little obvious of course, but then again, not too many top pitching prospects get immediately sent down to the minors after flirting with a no-hitter in their MLB debuts either. A combination of the All-Star break and the fact that the Astros didn’t need a fifth starter until Tuesday played into that decision then, but the righty apparently disliked the trip back so much that he’s decided to leave no doubt the second time around.
Not only that, but he decided to do it against the top dogs in the AL West.
Taking on the division-leading Oakland Athletics, Cosart delivered an encore to remember, going seven strong and allowing just an earned run (two total) on seven hits and three walks. Though it wasn’t totally clean, you couldn’t really say he flirted with danger all night through the 115-pitch outing either … despite allowing all those baserunners.
Why? Well, because he had his ground ball working enough such that potential threats were never really given a chance to develop into anything more. With a 57.1 percent ground ball rate to just 14.3 percent of fly balls, Coasart coaxed three double plays through his turn, sufficiently mitigating a 28.6 percent line drive rate for the night and any damage the A’s might have wanted to cause.
In short, he got the outs when he needed to, even though he wasn’t getting whiffs by the buckets (four strikeouts).
Now, it’s more than unlikely that his pitch-to-contact game is going to sustain these kinds of numbers going forward, especially if he’s going to be walking batters at a 3.6 BB/9 rate. Still, the poise and overall results the 23-year-old delivered on Tuesday was difficult to argue, especially for this Houston club with little more than the future to play for.
And after the inevitable Bud Norris trade goes down before the trade deadline, Cosart’s future with the team will should permanently become the now.
