Josh

Hader

The go-ahead run scored on a popup behind second after Jose Altuve tagged from third and Logan O’Hoppe whiffed on the throw home. Hader got five missed swings on his 12 pitches in a tie game tonight. In three appearances since coming off the IL, he has one win, one save and seven strikeouts in three hitless innings.

It wasn’t a save situation for Hader, but he was very effective once again. The A’s swung at five of his nine sinkers and missed very time. We’re guessing he’ll be down Saturday after pitching Wednesday and tonight, so that might open the door for Bryan King to get a save.

Hader walked one and struck out one. He averaged 95.8 mph with his sinker, which is very encouraging. That’s actually a little better than his 95.5-mph average from last season and it’s nearly two mph better than in his four Triple-A starts. Of course, there’s no guarantee that he’ll remain healthy from here, but based on the way he was throwing tonight, he could go right back to performing as a top-notch closer.

Hader has been out all season with shoulder and biceps issues, but he will return to Houston’s bullpen on Tuesday. The velocity readings on his last rehab appearances were not great, but that didn’t seem to bother the Astros. Fantasy managers should feel comfortable putting Hader back into their lineups, but maybe wait for a couple of appearances before dropping the other relievers in Houston’s bullpen.

Hader surrendered a three-run homer to Dodgers prospect James Tibbs III while making back-to-back appearances for the first time on his extended rehab assignment. The 32-year-old stopper figures to rejoin Houston’s bullpen either later this weekend or early next week.

The expectation is that Hader will be ready to make his season debut at some point early next week. The 32-year-old lefty closer has made a handful of rehab appearances over the last few weeks and should make it back to stabilize Houston’s soon.

Hader has pitched well in his previous rehab appearances, but the left-hander has been out of action for a while, and Houston will want to see their closer work a few more times in the minors before making the call-up. One of those final tests will almost assuredly be a back-to-back, and if all goes well, he should be back as the stopper for the Astros by the end of May.

There’s no publicly available Statcast data from this contest, but Hader said afterwards that he felt good physically and was trying to work on his slider in this latest rehab appearance. The 32-year-old closer appears close to returning to Houston’s bullpen after missing the start of the year recovering from a biceps issue. There should be a definitive timetable for his season debut from the Astros at some point soon. He’s close.

There’s no Statcast date from this latest appearance, but Hader notched one strikeout and threw 11 of 16 pitches for strikes. The 32-year-old elite stopper appears to be inching closer to returning to Houston’s bullpen but is probably going to need another couple rehab outings.

It’ll go in the books as an encouraging rehab debut for Hader, who threw nine of 16 pitches for strikes, and averaged 94 mph on his sinker. He finished with one strikeout and wound up facing just three batters after a one-out walk was erased on a caught stealing. The 32-year-old upper-echelon closer will return to Houston’s bullpen sometime around mid-to-late May after making a couple additional rehab outings.