Lance

McCullers Jr.

The 32-year-old right-hander allowed just two hits and four walks on the evening. The Astros staked him to a five-run lead in the first inning and all McCullers had to do was keep the train on the tracks to earn a victory here. All of the damage done against him came in the fourth inning on an RBI double by Pete Alonso and a two-run triple off the bat of Leody Taveras. McCullers generated 18 swings and misses on 99 offerings in the contest — 11 of them on his knucklecurve — while registering a strong CSW of 35 percent. Now 2-1 on the season, he’ll look to further improve upon his 6.32 ERA, 1.40 WHIP and 33/17 K/BB ratio (31 1/3 innings) when he toes the slab against the Dodgers on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old right-hander also issued four free passes on the night while punching out three. The Yankees scored three runs (one earned) off of him in the first inning, then added on with solo shots from Ryan McMahon in the second and Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the fourth. McCullers then returned for the sixth and allowed a single and an RBI double before exiting. He got just five swings and misses on 92 pitches in the ballgame, posting a CSW of 27 percent. Now 1-2 on the season, he’ll bring an unappealing 6.75 ERA and 1.50 WHIP (25 1/3 innings) into Thursday’s start against the Orioles in Baltimore.

That first time out when McCullers limited the Red Sox to one run over seven innings is looking like a big aberration right now. He’s given up 13 runs with a 12/8 K/BB over 13 1/3 innings in his three starts this month. The Astros will surely stick with him, but below average velocity and poor command makes for a bad combination. He’ll face the Yankees next week.

McCullers got into immediate trouble, as he gave up a two-run homer to Cal Raleigh with no one out in the first inning. He settled down over the next three innings, but fell apart in the fifth, and he was charged for a run after Julio Rodríguez blistered a two-run that tied the game at 7-7 after he was handed a 7-2 lead. McCullers was excellent against the Red Sox, and has been anything but since. He’ll get the Rockies on Thursday in Houston.

After a brilliant first start of 2026 that saw him struck out nine over seven innings against the Red Sox, McCullers was excellent over the first four frames, but it fell apart in the fifth. He allows a three-spot without getting an out, and his command was clearly waning as the inning progressed. Still, there’s more positives to be taken out of this than the line suggests. He’ll be back at it Saturday in Seattle.

It’s quite the statement from McCullers, who hadn’t thrown seven innings since 2022. Still, the struggling Red Sox probably made him look a little better than he deserved. They almost got to him in the sixth. Wilyer Abreu’s double with two on that inning skipped over the wall, costing Boston a run. The next batter, Masataka Yoshida, barely pulled a two-run double foul, and if that had landed, McCullers probably wouldn’t have finished the sixth, much less the seventh. Still, it was an encouraging outing on the whole. We just wouldn’t be ready to trust him in mixed leagues quite yet. He’ll face the A’s next.

McCullers gave up six hits but just three hard-hit balls tonight, albeit against a Triple-A lineup. His upside isn’t nearly what it was and the chances of him making 25-30 starts are pretty slim, but the Astros will be content if he’s just an average starter when he’s able to take the mound. He’s expected to face the Red Sox next week in his first outing.

Espada added that Spencer Arrighetti will open the season back at Triple-A Sugar Land before being an option once they expand to a six-man rotation. It’ll be Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai taking the ball over the weekend against the Angels before Lance McCullers Jr. starts Monday’s series opener against the Red Sox.

The Astros will transition to a six-man rotation around mid-April when they hit a stretch of 13 consecutive games without an off-day. Hunter Brown and Tatsuya Imai are the only locks right now with Cristian Javier, Mike Burrows and Lance McCullers Jr. figuring to break camp in the rotation as well. The battle for the sixth spot in the rotation involves a combination of Spencer Arrighetti, AJ Blubaugh and Peter Lambert. The other option is to bring up someone like Jason Alexander or Colton Gordon a couple weeks into the year.

McCullers had an impressive 36 percent whiff rate, but he also only threw 53 percent of his pitches for strikes on the day. Hes trigged to get ahead in the count with his four-seamer and had to go to his changeup often to begin at-bats. However, his changeup looked good, and his sinker took some pressure off his four-seamer and allowed a fair amount of weak contact. McCullers threw 58 pitches in this one and could be up to around 75 pitches in his first start of the season, which keeps him on the fringe of fantasy relevance.