When he returns, Hunter Brown is the unquestionable ace of the Astros. But Spencer Arrighetti has done an admirable job in his first six starts to help ease Brown’s absence with his own ace-like performance. Flirting with a no-hitter until a one-out single to Justin Foscue in the eighth inning, Arrighetti was simply tremendous. And it was the kind of performance that this team desperately needed on the heels of Tatsuya Imai and Mike Burrows getting rocked by the Mariners earlier in the week.
Although Houston remains on the outside looking in with an 18-28 record, Arrighetti’s contributions can’t be ignored. Yes, only six starts. 36 innings. Not a large sample size. Walks are still an occasional issue. But the right-hander has provided stability for a staff that has sorely lacked it, posting a 1.50 ERA and 3.61 FIP. Against the Rangers on Friday night, he provided an additional data point that he could remain a key fixture in a rotation, not only this season but also in the future.
Texas didn’t have many answers for Arrighetti. Yes, they drew four walks before Foscue’s single, but that traffic didn’t lead to any runs. It was interesting to see Arrighetti limit the scope of his pitch arsenal, focusing more on his four-seam fastball and curveball. He occasionally mixed in his sweeper against right-handed hitters. For a pitcher that likes to utilize all five of his pitches with at least a 10% usage rate, 77% of his pitches tonight were between two pitches. Whether that’s simply a one-game pitch plan or something more substantial might be something to watch. You can’t argue with tonight’s results in any case.
The lineup, however, continues to struggle. But, thankfully, there was just enough to ensure a win with how Arrighetti pitched. Isaac Paredes’s solo home run in the fourth off Jack Leiter would’ve been enough in this one.
Braden Shewmake would add a run of his own with an RBI single in the eighth to make it a 2-0 lead.
I am curious to see what the Astros do with Shewmake once Jeremy Peña is back. While I don’t have much hope that he can continue at his current pace at the plate, he has hit himself into more playing time. Odds are that Shay Whitcomb gets sent back to Sugar Land for Peña in order for Houston to carry both Shewmake and Nick Allen on the active roster. But with how he is playing recently, Shewmake has probably solidified his position as one of the first players off the bench in most situations for the Astros.
Again, the Astros are 18-28. From a results-based perspective, this isn’t a quality team at the moment. But this was a good win for a team in desperate need of one. Of course, I thought that walk-off win over the Mariners earlier this week was also a “good” win before they got blown out the next day. For tonight, however, we need to enjoy a win like this one as it hasn’t happened often this season.
Feature photo from Astros on X, Source Link
Spencer absolutely shoved in a must-win game for us fans against the mall cops. Flirting with a no-hitter in the 8th is the curb-stomping I wanted to give them.
If Peña came back tomorrow, how do you sit the league leader in consecutive hitting games?
It will be hard to find play time for Allen.
A for stuff, which makes sense, D+ for location. Curious though that he’s still rating so bad against LHB.
How do you collect accurate data about location? Especially now with the pitchcom.
I’m not sure how pitcherlist is doing it. I put it on my list of stuff to look into. I don’t know if they’re judging location by if it ends up in a good or bad spot with consideration to specific hitters, or if they’re judging it by where the catcher sets up and where the pitch ends up.
I think it’s one of those “better than nothing” statistics. I put them with framing (moreso with ABS).
I assume they are using Fangraphs’ Location+ metric. Location+ is part of the Stuff+ system. Stuff+ and Location+ are combined for Pitching+ metric. Fangraphs says: Location+evaluates a pitcher’s command by measuring how often they throw pitches to optimal locations based on count, pitch type, and batter handedness. It ignores physical characteristics, strictly grading process over results, with 100 representing league average.
“Physical characteristics” meaning what? Shape and break of pitch? Or physical target location of catcher’s mitt setup? I presume the former, where shape and break contribute to the stuff grade and where the pitch registers in or from the zone is the location grade.
Stuff without location feels like a dangerous line to tread. It feels like Lance McCullers’ whole career, really.
Stuff+ physical characteristics are based on velocity, type of pitch, shape and break of pitch.
As I recall, Location+ is based on league average results for various locations in the strike zone for particular pitches taking into account batter handedness and count. So for example if the league average BA on fastballs in the heart of the zone on a 3-2 count is .400, then a pitch thrown in that location would be a bad location+.
I like Stuff+ metrics and use them. But I can see two possible weaknesses. First, it is difficult to measure deception. Second, I don’t think there is a way to account for pitch sequencing strategy.
Arrighetti walked 3 LHBs. That is probably a good indicator why is location was rated so badly against LHB.
Christian Vazquez on Arrighetti: “(His) release is so low,” catcher Christian Vázquez said. “They think it’s a ball out of hand, but he gets it so close or in the zone, and they swing and miss. I think that helps.” The Astros like the low release point on FBs, and sometimes you will see pitchers modifying their arm angle or release point, like they did with Lambert.
I’ve sometime said that Arrighetti could develop into a Bryan Woo type of pitcher. That quote from Vazquez could apply to Woo also. It requires good athleticism to control their body. And I think Arrighetti has that.