Has the struggling Houston Astros star finally found his groove?

Few players have had a rockier start to the season than Josh Hader.

After signing a historic five-year, $95 million contract with the Houston Astros during the offseason, Hader immediately fell apart with his new team. The five-time All-Star had one of the worst stretches of his career to start the year, allowing at least one run in five of his first 11 appearances.

With the Astros off to their worst start in years, Hader became an easy target as one of their highest-paid and most publicized flops. Houston was struggling to win games, and Hader was only exacerbating the situation by repeatedly blowing winnable ones.

But after a horrible start to his Astros tenure, Hader is starting to look like his old self again.

Hader came into his own when Houston needed him on Tuesday.

With the game tied 1-1 against the Oakland A’s heading into the ninth inning, the star closer came in and delivered two scoreless innings, allowing the Astros to rally for a victory in the bottom of the 10th.

It was already his second time this season that he threw two innings, which is notable considering he hadn’t pitched two innings in the same game since 2019 before joining Houston. With Hader coming off three days of rest, Joe Espada trusted him to get six big outs, and he did not disappoint.

The Astros have now won five of their last six games, finally moving out of last place in the AL West. Hader contributed to their turnaround with a 1.59 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings over his last nine appearances, also earning two wins and four saves during that stretch.

He and his teammates still have a long way to go if they want to put their poor start behind them and make the playoffs.

That said, at least they finally seem to have gotten back on track.