41 Brad Peacock RP

Peacock struck out two over two perfect innings in Tuesday's 8-7 loss to the Angels.

With Charlie Morton done after four innings, the Astros needed some rare length out of the bullpen and turned to Peacock, who has become this year's version of Chris Devenski. In 2017, Devenski was the team's Swiss Army Knife out of the pen, but this year it's Peacock, who has pitched in every inning from the fifth to the ninth, has one save, and also has been needed for more than one inning of work. Since a blown save April 14, Peacock has tossed four scoreless innings.

Peacock allowed three runs on two home runs in two-thirds of an inning in Saturday's 6-5 extra-inning loss to the Rangers.

Peacock's slider has been essential to his success, but he didn't have his best one Saturday, when it generated just one swing-and-miss out of the 14 times he threw the pitch. Both homers came off wayward sliders to left-handed hitters. It was also a slider to a left-hander that did him in during Wednesday's walkoff loss to the Twins. Although lefty batters hit eight of the 10 home runs he allowed in 2017, Peacock wasn't egregiously bad against them last season, but it's been a different story in 2018 as they've tagged him for a 1.216 OPS in 17 at-bats. He's been part of the back end of the bullpen in 2018, even picking up a save, but that could change if he's unable to figure out how to get left-handed batters out.

Peacock (1-1) truck out two over 1.2 innings and allowed a walk-off home run in Wednesday's 9-8 loss to the Twins.

Peacock had been close to perfect this season before Max Kepler took him yard in the bottom of the ninth inning. That was his first run allowed in eight relief innings. He's emerged as a trusted reliever in the bullpen for manager A.J. Hinch, who used him a save situation earlier this week.

Peacock closed out Sunday's 4-1 win over the Padres, earning the save with a 1-2-3 ninth inning Sunday.

This was Houston's first save opportunity over the first 10 games of the season, but regular closer Ken Giles was unavailable after pitching two straight days, per Hunter Atkins of the Houston Chronicle. Peacock has emerged as an important piece on the staff, whether as a fill-in starter or reliever, and has five scoreless innings with five strikeouts and no walks over three appearances.

Peacock (1-0) allowed two hits and struck out five over three scoreless innings to pick up the win in Wednesday's 3-2 victory over the Orioles.

Peacock was stretched out in spring training to handle a multi-inning workload like this if manager A.J. Hinch so desired. This makes three scoreless outings to begin the season for Peacock, who's become a valuable swing man in the 'pen for the Astros since the beginning of 2017. The late-blooming right-hander credits a change in arm angle that turned him from a tepid starter to high-strikeout reliever.