HOUSTON -- Spencer Arrighetti started the season in Triple-A Sugar Land, and he admits that, “it felt like a kick in the face in the moment, but I never got discouraged.”
The right-hander used the trip to Triple-A as motivation, and since his callup on April 15 he has been stellar, with arguably his best outing coming on Friday night.
Arrighetti threw 7 1/3 no-hit innings and Isaac Paredes hit a solo home run as the Astros beat the Rangers, 2-0, at Daikin Park.
“I just never got discouraged by the starts before that,” said Arrighetti, who was 8-18 over his first two seasons. “I’ve always believed that I’ve belonged, and I’ve worked like it whether or not the numbers were good or not. … I’ve really just committed to my game. Every time I go out there, I throw my best punch every single pitch.”
Arrighetti’s no-hit bid was broken up by a Justin Foscue single with one out in the eighth. He was given a standing ovation as he walked off the mound. Arrighetti yielded one hit with four walks and five strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings. He improved to 5-1 while lowering his ERA to 1.50.
He has yet to allow more than three runs in any start across six outings thus far, and he's allowed one earned run or fewer in four of those six.
“It started when we asked him to go down to the Minor Leagues and work on some stuff,” Houston manager Joe Espada said. “He could have easily taken that the wrong way, but he chose not to. He said, ‘I’m going to go down there and work because this team is going to need me at some point.’ We needed him badly, and he’s been able to be really good in a very important moment in our season.”
Arrighetti relied mainly on his four-seam fastball and curveball. He threw 44 four-seamers and 35 curveballs out of his season-high 102 pitches. He got 12 whiffs total, with four on the four-seamer and six on the curve, notching two strikeouts with each of those pitches.
“The curveball is a good weapon for him,” Espada said. “He lands it whenever he wants to. For strike one, he gets a swing and miss. The fastball today he had the extension working. He really competed. He really performed. He delivered what we really needed as a team.
“He’s starting to get that feel, that, ‘Any time I get on the mound, I need to deliver for this team.’ That is the next step of young pitchers who have the stuff to do it and develop into top-end starters. He’s starting to showcase some of that behavior, and we really needed that as a club today.”
On Friday, he got some help with a couple great defensive plays behind him. Zach Dezenzo robbed Alejandro Osuna of extra bases in the fifth with a diving grab on a ball in the left-center-field gap.
After committing an error on the previous play, Paredes made a strong throw on a chopper near the line and deep on the dirt at third base, and Christian Walker made a great scoop on the short hop to get Foscue at first and end the fifth. In the eighth, Christian Vázquez backpicked a throw to first to get Foscue and end the inning.
Paredes hit his solo homer to the Crawford Boxes in left field with one out in the third, and Braden Shewmake extended his hitting streak to 10 games with an RBI single in the eighth.
Everything added together turned into a big win for the Astros, who improved to 18-28.
“That was such an incredible team win across the board,” Arrighetti said. “Really clutch hitting. Insane defense. I’m sure there’s too many pictures of me going like this [hands on his head] because my outfielder made a catch that I didn’t think they could possibly make, but I love it.
“I know it sounds dumb to say considering where we are right now, but this is a really special group. And I really believe in every single player who is in this locker room right now. … I’m sure there’s stuff being said right now that makes it seem bleak. I don’t think it feels that way in here. There’s no quit in this locker room. We work the same way every day whether we win or lose. I really do. I believe in everybody in here.”