41 Brad Peacock RP

Peacock struck out one and allowed a hit in a scoreless eighth inning in Wednesday's 4-1 win over the Giants.

Peacock has not allowed a run since an ugly blown save April 14. Wednesday's effort was his 11th straight scoreless appearance and lowered his ERA to 1.83. During that run, he's allowed six hits and three walks while fanning 15 over 11 innings. He's the trusted reliever when manager A.J. Hinch needs multiple innings, but will also pitch a one-inning setup role when needed.

Peacock threw two perfect innings, striking out three in Tuesday's 4-2 win over Oakland.

Starter Lance McCullers endured a turbulent five innings, so manager A.J. Hinch had to go to the bullpen early and needed some length. With Houston winning at the time, that meant using his most trusted relievers, beginning with Peacock, the former starter who was called on for fourth time in 13 games to throw multiple innings. Since an ugly blown save April 14, Peacock has fired seven consecutive scoreless innings spanning seven appearances. He has a 2.30 ERA and 1.02 WHIP with 20 strikeouts and four walks over 13.2 innings.

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.