Jake Odorizzi’s frustration is understandable. So is the Astros’ logic in pulling him with a low pitch count

Jake Odorizzi’s frustration with getting an early hook in his start Tuesday against the Mariners seeped into his postgame video press conference, where he said he thought it was “bullshit” that he was removed after five innings and only 66 pitches.

Astros manager Dusty Baker and pitching coach Brent Strom see what everyone else has noticed: that Odorizzi, like a vast majority of starting pitchers, is less effective the third time through the order. In his particular case, the third-time-through-the-order penalty has been especially pronounced this season.

Both stances are understandable. Odorizzi is a competitive veteran who was brought in on a multiyear free-agent contract and has pitched well lately after a bad stretch following the All-Star break. He wants to do what he believes he was signed to do and can do. The Astros have played themselves into a situation where they have to stave off the Mariners, and Tuesday they had all of their top relievers available. They want to maximize their best arms so that they don’t give away their division lead.

The situation might not be much more complicated than that. You’d be hard-pressed to find a starting pitcher who would be happy with being pulled after he was efficient enough to need only 66 pitches in five innings. You’d also be hard-pressed to find a team in a division race that didn’t prefer its best relievers to its No. 5 starter going through the lineup a third time in an important September game.

Odorizzi, 31, has had an up-and-down season. He missed a month early for a forearm injury and then settled into a groove leading into the All-Star break. He struggled in the second half but has pitched well in his past four starts. Overall, he has a 4.28 ERA in his 94 2/3 innings. By ERA, he’s been one percent better than the MLB average this year.

His third-time-through-the-order splits are drastic, though, and the stakes were higher for the Astros against the Mariners on Tuesday than they would have been against a non-contending AL West opponent like the Angels or the Rangers. It also probably didn’t help his case that he was facing the Mariners for a second consecutive start and the third time in four starts. And while he was as efficient as he’s been all season Tuesday, he did allow three hits in his final inning, including a game-tying, two-run double to J.P. Crawford, the first batter who saw him for a third time in the game.

“The hit I gave up in the fifth inning, the ball (was) off the plate exactly where I wanted to throw it,” Odorizzi said on Tuesday night’s video call. “I’m not upset at all (with my stuff on Tuesday). I had good stuff. I had 66 pitches through five innings. I don’t really know what needs to be said more than that.”

Odorizzi got the next batter, Mitch Haniger, to line out to end the inning and keep the score 2-2. In the sixth, Baker handed the ball to reliever Yimi Garcia, who gave up a go-ahead solo homer to Kyle Seager. The Astros fell behind 4-2 before Alex Bregman tied the game with a two-run homer in the ninth and Carlos Correa walked off a 5-4 win with a double in the 10th. That Odorizzi aired his grievances publicly following a dramatic, come-from-behind win against a team chasing the Astros in the standings was probably the most surprising aspect of the situation.

It was not nearly as surprising that Wednesday morning, before the Astros’ series finale against the Mariners, Odorizzi addressed the media to elaborate his thoughts. He had just met with Baker, Strom and general manager James Click, where both sides explained their views of the situation. Baker addressed the media right after Odorizzi.

“I understood (his comments),” Baker said. “We talked about it like men. I want all these guys to go as deep as they can in the games. But as a manager, you’re full of tough decisions. I have to do what I think is best for the team now and in the long run. I can’t blame him for wanting to go more. I want him to go more. I want everybody to go deep into the game because that takes pressure off my bullpen.”

Listening to Odorizzi speak to reporters Wednesday, it was clear that it was the low pitch count that irked him more than anything. “It’s a situational thing,” he said. He understands the third-time-through-the-order penalty, but it’s the starting pitcher’s mindset to try and pitch as deep as possible every game. With such a low pitch count, he felt he was in position to save the bullpen for another inning or so.

“That’s just how starting pitchers need to think,” he said. “Ask any starting pitcher around the league, I don’t care on what team, if you think five innings is doing your job and you’re happy with that, then there’s a problem with that. You want to be a competitor. I compete as hard as anybody out here. I’m sure some people didn’t like my comments but as a competitor that’s what you want. If somebody was in my position and I saw that, that’s a guy I want on my team. I want somebody to give them literally their all before being taken out. That’s the situation. I don’t expect anything different moving forward. I think each game should dictate how each game goes. I don’t have any preconceived notions of how I should be handled. That’s not my job. My job is to pitch and I’m going to pitch.”

Odorizzi has never been known as a pitcher who goes deep into games, though he also usually racks up a higher pitch count through five innings than he did Tuesday.

“Minus maybe like four or five guys, everybody’s numbers go up the third time through,” Odorizzi said. “We get this. I understand that. To lower the numbers, you have to be able to go out there and do it. I know what the numbers are. Everyone acts like I don’t understand. I know. The only way to get better at something is by doing it. You can’t be better in the sixth if you don’t go to the sixth. It’s just math. It is what it is. But there’s only one way to get better, by going through it. If the situation dictates it, great. If the situation doesn’t dictate it, I understand. I’m not saying I want an extra leash, that I want this and that. I think each game should be dictated by each game, and we move forward.”

The Astros haven’t set their rotation beyond this weekend’s series against the Angels — they’ll go with Framber Valdez on Friday, Luis Garcia on Saturday and Lance McCullers Jr. on Sunday — but they were already going to have a decision to make when Zack Greinke comes back from the COVID-19 related injured list. They could shift to a six-man rotation or move Odorizzi to the bullpen, where he would be a long reliever. That’s his path to a postseason roster spot, as well, but even in that role, it’s uncertain if he will make it.

Looking at it through a longer-term lens, Odorizzi’s incentive-laden contract will probably keep him on the Astros for at least one more season, if not two. For both sides, finding common ground is the best way forward. He’s far from the first starting pitcher in baseball history to publicly complain about being pulled too early. Often, these situations are diffused once the emotions of the night wear off for the pitcher. Odorizzi initiated Wednesday’s meeting by texting Click in the morning. When he spoke to reporters after the meeting, Odorizzi painted it as a non-issue moving forward.

His usage, though, will now be a story every time he pitches.

“You say what you say, you talk about it, you explain why, you hear both sides, it’s just a conversation, and it was a normal conversation,” Odorizzi said. “We’ve all been around long enough in that room that we know how these conversations go, and it’s important to have some of those conversations. Today’s a new day. We’re looking to win a ballgame again.”

(Top photo: Thomas Shea / USA Today)