Yet the last week has offered Houston another hint of optimism. Diaz’s three-hit night in a 4-3 win over the White Sox on Thursday was his fifth multi-hit game in his past seven contests. He is 11-for-27 in that stretch, raising his OPS to .680, the highest it has been since opening day.

Right now, Peña's 4 WAR (wins above replacement) ranks second to New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, whose sits at 5.6 for the season so far. While that's one singular stat, a closer look at the numbers reveals just how valuable Peña is .

So much has gone wrong for the Astros this year. Three-fifths of their season-opening rotation is on the injured list, and that doesn’t even count two other key starters who haven’t thrown a single pitch in 2025.

Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died after a drug overdose in 2019 when Wade Miley was pitching for the Houston Astros.

The Houston Astros look like they could have the makings of a team who buys at the trade deadline in order to put themselves in a position to chase another championship. With the American League still looking extremely thin as has been the case for the last couple of years,

Christian Walker went 8-for-42 across his next 12 games, negating whatever nirvana the superstition may have spurred. He averaged at least a 96.5 exit velocity during eight of those 12 contests, continuing a confluence of poor luck and putrid results.