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Tonight, in St. Louis, the Astros are sending Jose Urquidy to make the fourth start of his major league career. Although his first two games failed to inspire much confidence, Urquidy’s latest start on July 20th against the Rangers turned some heads. In that particular game, the right-hander tossed seven innings of one-run ball. He also struck out nine batters in addition to avoiding walks altogether.

What is the possible key to his start tonight against the Cardinals? Well, it just might be his release point and how consistently he can replicate his delivery. Let’s take a look how the release point has progressed in each of his three major league starts.

7/2/19 vs. Rockies

7/7/19 vs. Angels

7/20/19 vs. Rangers

That game in Colorado was kinda weird, especially since it was Urquidy’s major league debut. Although we tend to view baseball players as robots, we’re still talking about our fellow man here. Between the nerves and Coors Field, I tend to let Urquidy slide on that one. I think he was just trying to do too much in his big league debut. Plus, his actual results were not terrible. Not great, mind you, but the damage was mitigated. It was clear that he wasn’t fooling any of the Colorado hitters, though.

That said, his start against the Angels in Houston on July 7th was rather disappointing. I’m fairly confident that the irregular release point and varying arm angles played a role in that affair. The Angels in their second time through the order were more apt to readily identify Urquidy’s offerings than the first time. And like his start against the Rockies, the age-24 right-hander wasn’t mowing down the competition. Fast forward to his next start against the Rangers on July 20th and we saw a much more consistent release points from Urquidy. If he can maintain that level of consistency in his delivery, then the Astros should feel good about their chances with the right-hander on the mound against the Cardinals.