Houston Astros Set to Start Former A's Pitcher Against Former Club

Ahead of Monday's game against the Athletics in West Sacramento, the Houston Astros had to place Lance McCullers Jr. on the IL with a right foot sprain, retroactive to June 13. He was originally the scheduled starter for Monday's game, but with McCullers unavailable, the Astros went instead with rookie Ryan Gusto, who went five innings and gave up one run in the 3-1 A's win.

Gusto was originally slated to pitch on Tuesday, but with him moving up a day, the corresponding move the Astros made with the McCullers injury was to bring up former Athletics righty Jason Alexander to make his debut with his new club.

Alexander, 32, was signed by the Athletics during the offseason, and when the team needed a fresh arm, he got the call back to the big leagues for the first time since 2022 when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers. In his two brief stints with the A's, he covered six innings in four outings, posting an 18.00 ERA with a .400 batting average against and a 2.83 WHIP.

A lot of that damage was done in one outing against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, where the team was already getting blown out, and Alexander was left out there to just get as many outs as he possibly could. He ended up going 2 1/3 innings, giving up seven hits, walking four, and letting nine earned runs cross the plate.

He was designated for assignment by the Athletics shortly thereafter, and claimed off waivers by the Astros.

Alexander has been terrific in the minors for both franchises, started a total of eight games (nine appearances total) and racking up 42 innings, split pretty evenly between Las Vegas and Sugar Land, and he holds a cumulative 1.50 ERA with a 1.21 WHIP.

It's unclear exactly how deep into the game Alexander is expected to go on Tuesday night, but in his time in the minors he's been good for about four innings pretty consistently, while topping out at six innings of work.

In a fun twist, this will be his second time facing a part of the A's organization, with his first outing with the Astros coming against Triple-A Las Vegas. He ended up going four scoreless innings against the Aviators, giving up just one hit and striking out a pair. That outing was also his one relief outing of the season.

A's rookie third baseman Max Muncy was the only one to face him on the A's current roster, and he ended up going 0-for-2 with a strikeout.

This shoud be an interesting matchup for both Alexander and the A's, since the righty was able to watch this club's hitters and their tendancies, and he'll be able to combine that with the Astros' scouting reports on the club. On the flip side, the A's batters also got to see him work a decent bit, and will have some scouting of their own done.

First pitch on Tuesday night is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. (PT) from Sutter Health Park.