​Houston Astros Yainer Diaz, right, celebrates with Cam Smith after his solo home run during the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Friday, July 31, 2026. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle)
There’s plenty of credit to go around when dissecting a Houston Astros turnaround that saw them go from a club that was 11 games below .500 in late May to the one that went to bed in first place in the American League West on Friday night.The win that got them there was a thorough 11-2 throttling of the Texas Rangers at Daikin Park and one of the keys was a guy who has been wielding a hot bat in an even hotter summer.No, we’re not writing about Yordan Alvarez, although the overwhelming MVP favorite added to his Triple Crown quest with two more hits and two more RBIs.It’s not even Jeremy Peña who we’re thinking of, although all he did was go 3-for-5 with three RBIs.How about Yainer Diaz? The catcher who hits all the way down in the seven spot in the order delivered his second straight four-hit night and quietly is starting to put up the kind of offensive numbers that had so many excited about him when he emerged as the team’s everyday starter in 2024.”Yainer is a grinder,” Peña said after the win. “Yainer is a dude who shows up every single day and puts the work in, prepares, prepares, prepares on both sides of the ball to help the pitchers by calling a great game and to perform at the plate. He’s crushing it. That’s a guy we need to keep going.”The top of the Astros’ order, led by Peña and Alvarez, has never been a problem. Finding production almost anywhere else had been an issue, especially when things looked dismal in May.Things have looked much brighter lately, and against the Rangers, hitters six through nine combined to go 9-for-19 with three RBIs.”That allows Peña and Yordan to come up with men on base,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “When we get that contribution from everyone, it’s a completely different offense. The way we came out and played today, that’s the stuff there that I want to see.”It’s especially what they’ve wanted to see from Diaz.Acquired as a 22-year-old minor leaguer along with reliever Phil Maton in a trade that sent popular center fielder Myles Straw to the Cleveland Guardians in 2021, Diaz made his big league debut in 2022, then began making an impact in 2023, hitting .282 with what still stands as career-bests 23 home runs and an .846 OPS as he shared time with Martín Maldonado behind the plate. He repeated with a similar 2024, although there was a slight dip in power with a .299 average, 16 home runs and a .766 OPS.The numbers took another step back last year, and appeared to be back-pedaling further early this year when the entire team – besides Alvarez – seemed to struggle.However, Diaz missed six weeks with an oblique injury and ever since he returned in mid-June, his swing has seemed to return. In the 27 games since Diaz came off the injured list, the Astros have gone 23-14 and he has hit .