Houston Astros first baseman Christian Walker. Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

Astros need this player to keep up the pace

By Joe Rutland | Last updated Aug 7, 2025 10:30 AM ET

The Houston Astros have been scuffling as of late, seeing their American League West Division lead shrink to two games. They needed one of their big players to step up his game.

Thankfully, he's been doing it pretty well recently. Coming onto a new team with a big free-agent contract in hand places a lot of stress on players. Maybe that was part of the problem for this Astros player through the MLB season's first few months.

But first baseman Christian Walker is showing off these days. Walker, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner, has been picking up the pace in the batter's box. He's hitting .238 with 16 home runs and 61 RBI for the season, according to StatMuse.

In Wednesday's 6-4 loss to the Miami Marlins, Walker connected for his 16th homer, a two-run blast over the left-field wall. He added another hit later in the game, finishing 2-for-2 with his two RBI.

This is one of the reasons the Astros brought Christian Walker to Houston.
pic.twitter.com/yjE8OyJBsr
— Mark Berman (@MarkBerman_) August 6, 2025

Astros fans need to look at Walker's slash line right now. Over his past 20-plus games, he has slashed .299/.353/.486 with five home runs and 22 RBI. Walker is one of those players who is turning around his season after a slow start.

He has a .301 OBP and a slugging percentage of .399. While those numbers might not put fear in some Astros opponents, Walker has been working hard to improve his numbers. He had a breakout series recently against the Los Angeles Dodgers when the Astros visited Dodger Stadium.

Walker, who also has played for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Baltimore Orioles in his career, just loves mashing the ball at Chavez Ravine and against the Dodgers as a whole.

His career numbers against the Dodgers are breathtaking. In 93 career games against them, Walker has 29 homers, 65 RBI and scored 50 runs.

As for his overall career numbers at this point, Walker has a .248 batting average with 819 hits, 163 home runs, 504 RBI and 476 runs scored.

If Walker can keep up his recent pace, then the Astros will be pleased. There's no doubt that having Carlos Correa and Jeremy Pena as part of the Astros lineup has helped Walker get a dose of better pitches to hit.

The Astros have Thursday off before starting a three-game weekend series against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Look for Walker to keep up his hitting ways this weekend.

Joe Rutland

Joe Rutland has contributed articles on sports, entertainment, and business to digital platforms like Athlon Sports, The Sporting News, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, The Good Men Project, and others. He's spent four decades in the communications industry as a journalist, editor, writer, and columnist. His sports areas of focus include MLB, NBA, college football, and WNBA

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