4 Houston Astros to blame for season-opening sweep to Yankees

The Houston Astros and New York Yankees were set to face off in what was arguably the most interesting opening series. These two teams have formed a very real rivalry due to their postseason clashes.

The Astros had a chance to show the Yankees that they're still the top dog in the American League while New York had a chance to show Houston that they won't be bullied anymore. Not only did the Yankees win the series on the road in Houston, but they swept the Astros in embarrassing fashion.

When a team gets swept almost everyone deserves at least a portion of the blame, but these four players in particular deserve a good amount of blame for the Astros getting off to an 0-4 start.

4. Framber Valdez struggled mightily in his Opening Day start

While the Astros were swept by the Yankees, it wasn't all bad. In fact, the season got off to a great start with Houston building a 4-0 lead after the first two innings on Opening Day. A four-run lead with Framber Valdez on the bump felt like an easy win, until it didn't.

Valdez, the pitcher known to consistently pump out quality starts, struggled with his command all afternoon and it finally caught up to him in the fifth inning. Valdez allowed four straight base runners to begin the fifth, including a pair of walks to allow the Yankees to get right back into the game.

It looked like he'd climb out of trouble after back-to-back strikeouts against Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, but he hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch to cut the lead to 4-2 and was pulled from the game before even completing five innings. Had Houston won the game, Valdez wouldn't have even gotten the win because he didn't complete five frames.

Seth Martinez walked in a run immediately, which was charged to Valdez as it was his base runner. The final line for Framber was not pretty as he allowed three runs on five in 4.2 innings of work, issuing six walks and a hit batsman in the process.

It's not Valdez's fault alone that Houston lost this game, but he was handed a 4-0 lead early on and couldn't even get through five frames. He put the game in the hands of Houston's bullpen for over four innings and unsurprisingly, they couldn't hold on. The Astros needed more from their ace, especially on Opening Day.

3. Yordan Alvarez did not hit like the superstar that he is

Yordan Alvarez has established himself as one of the best hitters in the game. Sure, he's not fast and is not a good defender, but when it comes to purely swinging the bat, Alvarez is a superstar. There's no arguing with that.

Yordan started and hit second in all four games, yet all he could do was muster up two hits, both singles, in 17 at-bats. He did not drive in a single run, although he did score one. The Astros obviously need a whole lot more.

Alvarez had five at-bats with runners in scoring position and came up empty. Considering the fact that Houston lost three of the four games by two runs or fewer, one or two big hits from Yordan might've changed the outcome of the entire series. Instead, Alvarez was hitless in big spots, and Houston was swept.

There's little reason to be concerned about Alvarez as he'll almost certainly get going sooner than later, but there's no disputing that he has to be much better than he was against the Yankees.

2. Bryan Abreu is the reason that the Astros lost Game 3 of this series

The Astros had to begin their season with only 25 active players on their 26-man roster because Bryan Abreu was serving a two-game suspension that came from hitting Adolis Garcia with a pitch in the ALCS.

Abreu returned for Game 3 of the series and was given what appeared to be a fairly easy situation to make his season debut. Abreu entered in the seventh inning with Houston ahead 3-1 and he was set to face the lower third of the Yankees order. He just couldn't get anybody out.

Abreu walked Austin Wells to lead off the inning, then gave up a two-run homer to Oswaldo Cabrera to allow the Yankees to tie the game. That home run wasn't entirely his fault as Cabrera somehow hit what looked like an impossible pitch to square up into the seats, but he still did throw the pitch that Cabrera hit out. Abreu then proceeded to allow a go-ahead home run to Juan Soto.

It'd be nice if the Astros would've scored more than three runs, but Abreu is supposed to be a lockdown late-inning arm for Houston. He wasn't in the third game of this series, not one bit.

1. Dana Brown did not construct enough bullpen depth for the Astros

This series was won by the Yankees in large part because of the damage they did against Houston's bullpen. The three-headed monster of Abreu, Ryan Pressly, and Josh Hader didn't pitch well, but their lack of depth was very prevalent.

Their bullpen is essentially those three dominant relievers and not a single other trustworthy arm for Joe Espada to turn to. That puts him in a really difficult situation. Dana Brown is the man to blame for that.

Brown deserves credit for getting Josh Hader to come to Houston, but in order to sign Hader, he sacrificed depth. That risk could pay off for Houston if their starting rotation goes six or seven inning every start, but Houston's middle relief is subpar at best.

Part of that has to do with Kendall Graveman, a pitcher expected to be a key piece for Houston this season, going down with injury. However, he underwent surgery in January. There was (and still is) more than enough time for Brown to add another arm. Part of it also has to do with Rafael Montero, a pitcher making $11.5 million this season, continuing to look like a minor leaguer as he allowed an earned run in his first appearance and allowed the go-ahead run to score in his second outing.

Five of the eight spots in Houston's bullpen are held by arms who should be depth options at best. The combination of Tayler Scott, Montero, Parker Mushinski, and Brandon Bielak allowed the Yankees to score seven runs in three innings after Christian Javier held New York scoreless through six in the second game of the series.

There's still plenty of time for Brown to seriously address this issue, but it was very prevalent in Houston's season-opening series and was something anyone could've predicted.