Although Spencer Arrighetti won the AL Pitcher of the Month award for his May performance (29 IP, 0.93 ERA), the signs were there that he was due for some regression. I mean, a .197 BABIP with only a 4.2% K-BB% rate to go with a 4.20 FIP? I think we all foresaw regression in his future to some extent.
To this level, though? I didn’t.
But when it rains, it pours. And that regression has hit Arrighetti hard in June, with a 6.95 ERA in his last four starts, including Saturday’s game against the Guardians. All said and done, Cleveland scored six runs off Arrighetti across six innings, with left-handed hitters in Travis Bazzana (x2) and Kyle Manzardo blasting home runs off of him at various points. In fact, those were the first home runs he had allowed to left-handed hitters all season.
Any positive developments from this start?
Well, Arrighetti avoided walks while striking out eight. It doesn’t mean much when you also allow six runs in the process, but Arrighetti has had some walk issues this season. Generally speaking, you want to issue fewer walks as a pitcher, and the Guardians have one of the more patient lineups in baseball, with a 10.3% walk rate as a team. Only four lineups have a higher walk rate than they do this season. It is easy to write that a couple of fewer mistakes are likely to change how this start unfolds for Arrigheti, but in this case, I think there is some truth to that.
Joey Cantillo had no such issues against the Astros, though.
In my game preview, I mentioned how Cantillo’s changeup is arguably his best pitch, but you can get to him when he throws his four-seam fastball. Up to this game, he threw that fastball around 40% of the time. Against the Astros today? Only 16% of the time. In turn, Cantillo threw a steady diet of curveballs and changeups, with his cutter seeing more action. But it was his curveball and changeup that neutralized Houston’s lineup, with a combined 18 whiffs on 38 swings. Only Yainer Diaz would drive in a run with an RBI single in the second inning. Ultimately, Cantillo looked fantastic, throwing eight innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts. It largely didn’t matter what Arrighetti did, as anything short of a shutout wasn’t going to beat Cantillo on Saturday.
There simply wasn’t much to like about this game from an Astros perspective. Pitching, hitting, all of it wasn’t good enough. But AJ Blubaugh struck out three in his one inning of work. Bryan Abreu had a scoreless inning, with his cutter reappearing again? It feels like I am grasping at straws at the moment, much like this team has for most of the season up to now.
Feature photo from Astros on X
