Astros First Inning Woes w/ Bonus Stats

I am not breaking news when I say that the Astros pitching staff is mightily struggling overall but specifically in the 1st inning (9th as well but that's a different matter). Our team ERA of 9.73 in the 1st is worst in the league, even worse than the Rockies. However, the home/away splits are astounding. . . At home, our 1st inning ERA is 2.88. On the road, it's 17.01! Now that number is inflated by Hunter Brown's infamous start at KC but we're still talking about a world of difference between at home and the road.

So what's the Astros record when they give up at least 1 run in the 1st inning?

Opponent scores in 1st inning: 3-8 (.273)

Opponent doesn't score in 1st inning: 10-16 (.385)

Sadly, the Astros this year aren't a world-beater when not giving up a 1st inning run but some interesting tidbits came up while I looked back on these games. First, we didn't give up a 1st inning run until Heaney's Henley's emergency start at the Rangers. That means for our past 27 games, we've let our opponents score 40.8% of the time in the 1st. This would be behind (ahead?) only the Rockies in overall %. Not only that but 9 out of those 11 games have been multiple run 1st innings. Out of those 9, 8 were on the road. We should apologize to Heaney Henley as clearly he has placed a curse on this team out of spite for being sacrificed to the Rangers.

Now for another interesting but infuriating stat. Teams that score first tend to win more often. Riveting analysis I know. So what's the Astros record when scoring first?

Astros score first: 9-9 (.500)

Opponent scores first: 4-18 (.181)

Just oof. The biggest OOF. We've joked about it before on here but this year it seems true to say if the opposition scores first then it's game over.

So why is this happening? Idk man, I was just really curious and have a lot of free time at work. Ask 5 different people and you'll likely get at least 3 different answers. But flat out, our pitching sucks. That's my quality analysis.