The Houston Astros, as things stand (despite their 12-5 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night), are well on their way to another AL West division crown, which would be their fourth consecutive and their seventh over the past eight seasons. But all season long, the Astros’ starting rotation has had to deal with plenty of bouts with inconsistency as seen on Wednesday in how Spencer Arrighetti faltered in his start.
The Reds simply got Arrighetti’s number from the get-go. Jonathan India went yard against him on the very first at-bat of the game for the Reds, and then the Astros starter proceeded to allow eight more baserunners to reach base on the inning, and just getting two outs in the process. Every baserunner that Arrighetti allowed managed to cross the plate, giving him nine earned runs allowed and a disastrous ERA of 121.50.
Astros manager Joe Espada did not mince words following the game. Espada said that Arrighetti did not manage to fool anyone with any of the pitches he threw, as the Reds simply read him like a book and played him like a fiddle.
“I thought they were on all his pitches. They just were not fooled. They took some really good swings on him. That’s one you want to put behind quickly and get ready for your next one,” Espada said, via ESPN.
It’s confounding how Spencer Arrighetti can go from 100 to 0 from one start to another as quickly as he did for the Astros on Wednesday. This was Murphy’s Law on full display; after all, how can Arrighetti go from quieting a very explosive Philadelphia Phillies offense in his most recent start — a game in which he allowed no earned runs on two hits while striking out 11 and walking four — to floundering in only 0.2 innings against the Reds?
In fact, Arrighetti has had a game score of 70 or better in four of his past five starts, and in two of those games, he faced the Baltimore Orioles and Phillies — teams that are currently on track to win their respective divisions.
But as Joe Espada said, Spencer Arrighetti has no choice but to put this calamitous start in the rearview mirror. After all, compared to the Astros starter’s previous performances, this should be nothing but a blip.
Spencer Arrighetti’s solid rookie campaign for the Astros
Spencer Arrighetti is a major Astros organizational success story, and this blunder of a start on Wednesday night should not change that fact. Arrighetti was selected in the sixth round of the 2021 MLB Draft, and it’s downright impressive that he has made it to the big leagues in only his fourth season as a member of the organization.
Arrighetti did not have the most impressive minor-league numbers, but the Astros still decided to give him a shot. He has been a consistent part of their rotation since April, and he has been a very helpful player in covering for the team amid their struggles with starting pitcher health.
The 24-year-old has pitched his fair share of gems this season; in addition to the impressive start against the Phillies that was mentioned above, he also twirled a 10-strikeout gem against the Colorado Rockies on June 26, a performance that, according to the Game Score metric, was the best of his career to this point.
