It wasn’t Spencer Arreghetti’s day. It wasn’t any of the Astros’ day, either, for that matter.
Arrighetti has fallen off his early-season, All-Star pace, but it hardly matters what the pitcher does when the lineup, one that looked a lot like one the Sugarland Space Cowboys could run, doesn’t score.
The Royals got an early start off Arrighetti in the first after Boby Witt singled, stole second, and scored on a Maikel Garcia single.
The Royals piled on in the third on a Jac Caglione RBI single and a Garcia, two-run, RBI double. That would do it for the scoring on this lazy Sunday afternoon.
There’s not much a pitcher can do when the offense gets blanked on five hits. But the early-season stopper we saw in Arrighetti has vanished of late, allowing an ERA of 6.19 in his last three games, including today, when he allowed four runs in six innings pitched.
The Astros did manage to score 18 runs in the previous two closely fought victories, so an offensive letdown on a day when key starters got a rest is not surprising.
Raynel Delgado made his major league debut today and had his first major league hit.
Here’s the thing about days off. I get them; and I support them. Some people want every player to go every day like Cal. I think you gotta do some load management especially with guys coming back from injuries and older guys.
But what I find funny is that people have been complaining about them forever, even in the 100 win years, and the recurring response then was always that having an 8 or 9 game lead in the division allows the Astros to do this, because they’re optimizing themselves for October not June.
Except we’re still doing it even when we’re down in 4th place in the division, so it;s not like division lead or deficit is dictating it. I think it’s more of just what a 162 game schedule requires in 2026.