{"id":800033,"date":"2026-05-16T07:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/800033\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:05:13","slug":"what-spencer-arrighetti-means-to-houston-astros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/800033\/","title":{"rendered":"What Spencer Arrighetti means to Houston Astros"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti, center, hugs Christian Walker after Texas Rangers’ Justin Foscue’s single broke up Arrighetti’s no-hit bid during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti, left, celebrates with relief pitcher Bryan King (74) after a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti, left, celebrates with Yordan Alvarez after a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti delivers to Texas Rangers’ Joc Pederson during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti delivers to Texas Rangers’ Joc Pederson during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti delivers to Texas Rangers’ Jake Burger during the seventh inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti (41) reacts as he waits for officials to review a play at first base which secured his no-hit bid against the Texas Rangers during the seventh inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti reacts after a single hit by Texas Rangers’ Justin Foscue broke up his no-hit bid during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo\/Karen Warren)<\/p>\n

Karen Warren\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

The Houston Astros<\/a>\u2019 brutal start might be bleaker if not for a resurgent right-hander. Spencer Arrighetti is spearheading a rotation that found no spot for him early in the season and perhaps blooming at a critical time for a club trying to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

Friday, Arrighetti fell five outs short of a no-hitter<\/a> against the Texas Rangers but fueled a 2-0 win that left Houston with an 18-28 record. Amid repeated pleas for patience, the 26-year-old right-hander tinged his afterward with an exhortation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it sounds dumb to say where we\u2019re sitting right now, but this is a really special group,\u201d Arrighetti said. \u201cI really believe in every single player that\u2019s in this locker room right now. And I think we just need to take it a little more personally. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s stuff being said right now that makes it seem bleak. I don\u2019t think it feels that way in here. There\u2019s no quit in this locker room. We work the same way every day when we win and we lose. And I really do, I believe in everybody in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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No player in Houston\u2019s clubhouse may better embody personal motivation right now than Arrighetti. A glut of rotation options led the Astros to start him at Triple-A<\/a> this season, a decision that\u2019s debatable in hindsight but reflected a personnel crunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to just block that part out, to be completely honest with you,\u201d Arrighetti said. \u201cI needed to ramp up. I needed to get my pitch count where it needed to be to start games and go deep into games like I\u2019ve been able to since coming back. Obviously it felt like a kick in the face in the moment. But I just never got discouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injuries and poor performance cleared a path for Arrighetti\u2019s call-up in mid-April. His impact since for a flailing club cannot be understated. The Astros have won 11 of their last 28 games. Five of the wins are behind Arrighetti, who has a 1.50 ERA in six starts.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cJust huge, and it started when we asked him to go down to the minor leagues and work on some stuff,\u201d manager Joe Espada said. \u201cHe could have easily taken that the wrong way, but he chose not to. He said, \u2018I\u2019m going to go down there and work because this team is going to need me at some point.\u2019 We needed him, and he\u2019s been able to be really good in a very important moment in our season.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An up-and-down 2024 rookie season held flashes Arrighetti struggled to sustain. His sophomore season was curtailed by injuries, with a fractured thumb and an elbow ailment limiting him to seven outings in which he posted a 5.35 ERA. Harnessing a repertoire built on two breaking balls and elite extension has been the charge for a pitcher who averaged 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings as a rookie.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always going to be a guy that is going to pitch on the edges and he needs the chases,\u201d Espada said. \u201cBut when he gets ahead in the count, he\u2019s able to get the chases when he wants to. And if he walks a guy, he\u2019s got stuff to punch people out. So those are the things that we want him (to do) \u2013 just get your stuff in the zone, create opportunities to chase once you\u2019re ahead. And he\u2019s been able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A stretch late in Arrighetti\u2019s rookie year illustrated it, as well. He earned AL rookie of the month honors that August for a five-start span that included one in Philadelphia in which he took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning. His final four starts of that season produced a 4.42 ERA.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

More consistency is key, a logical next step in Arrighetti\u2019s maturation into a pitcher who could help front a rotation. The disarrayed state of Houston\u2019s, which is still missing ace Hunter Brown and entered Friday with the majors\u2019 highest ERA, is screaming for such candidates to emerge.<\/p>\n

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Arrighetti has allowed two or fewer earned runs in each of his first starts this season, joining Brown and Dallas Keuchel as pitchers to do that for the Astros in the last decade. Of seven pitchers who have made at least three starts for Houston this season, only Arrighetti and Peter Lambert have an ERA under 4.50.<\/p>\n

That has lent needed stability, yet some areas invite improvement. Arrighetti completed fewer than six innings in three of his six starts. He has issued four or more walks in four of them, including on Friday, a number that Arrighetti noted after his excellent outing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t feel like it was good enough,\u201d Arrighetti said. \u201cI think I walked too many people. I burned a lot of energy, burned a lot of pitches trying to punch guys out that I didn\u2019t need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arrighetti struck out five of his first 11 batters Friday but finished the third inning already at 50 pitches. He did not record another strikeout but became more economical, working his next four innings on 44 pitches, aided by eye-opening defense. Zach Dezenzo\u2019s sprawling catch of Alejandro Osuna\u2019s drive into the left-center field gap in the fifth spurred the idea of something special brewing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always one play when you look back at (no-hit) bids where it\u2019s like, man, that\u2019s the difference,\u201d Arrighetti said.<\/p>\n

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Osuna\u2019s 101 mph liner was an outlier for Texas\u2019 lineup. The Rangers put 18 balls in play against Arrighetti, just four of them with an exit velocity above 95 mph, the Statcast hard-hit threshold. Arrighetti mixed his four-seam fastball and curveball primarily. He entered Friday throwing curveballs a career-high 30.7% of the time. Opponents owned an .094 batting average and a 53.8% whiff rate against it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were chasing a lot out of the zone,\u201d catcher Christian V\u00e1zquez said. \u201cThe curveball was, like always, a very good pitch. And the fastball up was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already at 94 pitches, Arrighetti returned to the mound for the eighth. Bryan King warmed as he began the inning with a walk to Osuna. Arrighetti induced a flyout from Kyle Higashioka, then spun a first-pitch sweeper in the zone to Justin Foscue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a strike and I needed it to be a strike because I was starting to get tired,\u201d Arrighetti said. \u201cAnd honestly, I thought it was a pretty good slider. \u2026 But it could have been better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foscue swing produced a line drive at 80.1 mph off the bat but over the head of leaping third baseman Isaac Paredes for a single. It proved the Rangers\u2019 only hit, as King got the game\u2019s final five outs with an assist from V\u00e1zquez, who picked Foscue off first base to end the eighth.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe broke his bat on it,\u201d Arrighetti said. \u201cI feel like in another world maybe it goes right at somebody or maybe it\u2019s hit soft enough that it just doesn\u2019t quite squeak through the infield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, it ended Arrighetti\u2019s night after 102 pitches, one short of his career high. He left the mound to a standing ovation from a paid crowd of 32,555 at Daikin Park, another performance added to a promising return.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a little different demeanor,\u201d Espada said. \u201cHe knows what he wants to do and he\u2019s starting to develop some pitches and he understands that if I\u2019m going to stick and be a top-end starter, I need to do X, Y and Z. He recognizes those things and he\u2019s starting to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti, center, hugs Christian Walker after Texas Rangers’ Justin Foscue’s single broke up…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":800034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-800033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116582989399800804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}