Michael Shapiro is a sports reporter for Chron, covering the Astros, Rockets, Texans and every team in town. Michael is a Denver native and graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and a noted fan of pull-up threes, wide-receiver passes and a good hot fudge sundae.

Jeremy Peña's breakout season remains on hold as he recovers from a rib fracture but the Astros' All-Star shortstop got a promising update.

Beat writer Matt Kawahara answers a variety of Astros questions in his bi-weekly mailbag, including if Houston will add a left-handed bat at the trade deadline.

From the perspective of Chandler Rome of The Athletic, an Astros insider, the latest saga in the Astros' injury woes warrants further evaluation. His article was brought about due to Jake Meyers, who had been dealing with a calf issue, suffering a setback as he was gearing up to play in Wednesday night's game against the Cleveland Guardians.

A scary scene unfolded on Monday night when the Houston Astros hosted the Cleveland Guardians at Daikin Stadium. Astros pitcher Colton Gordon was pitching to Gu

Brice Matthews, who was originally set to play in the All-Star Futures game in Atlanta, was happy to make the trip back to Houston for his MLB debut.

Stephen Parello of Climbing Tal's Hill laid out the strong case for Espada to earn the AL Manager of the Year Award from Major League Baseball at the end of the season.

The Houston Astros have been playing like the best team in baseball over the past several weeks, which has made it easy for many to overlook the troubling injur