Winning the AL Pitcher of the Month for May was a wonderful accomplishment for Spencer Arrighetti. And he deserved it, allowing only three earned runs in 29 innings (five starts). But it was always unrealistic to expect Arrighetti to maintain such an impressive pace, as I don’t think anyone expected this kind of regression in June (25 earned runs in 25 innings, including Friday’s start against the Tigers).
Needless to say, the start didn’t end well for Arrighetti, allowing eight earned runs and failing to record an out in the fourth. While he struck out seven, the right-hander did allow five hits and five walks. Of those five hits, three were home runs. The fastball got hammered. He simply wasn’t good in any measure.
With Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr., and Ronel Blanco all on rehab assignments, you can’t help but wonder if Arrighetti is sent down in light of his struggles. Following Friday’s start, he might be a prime candidate to head back to Sugar Land to work on some things when one of those guys, likely Javier, is activated.
The lineup didn’t fare any better, with only five hits and two walks. Zero runs. Jose Altuve had the best night of the bunch with two hits and Yainer Diaz had a double, but the positives end there. Again, not much to like in this game. The lineup failed to do anything of substance.
The most intriguing thing about this game was Jake Meyers throwing a scoreless eighth inning on just nine pitches. Per Statcast, he only threw sliders. Bryan Abreu threw more cutters (4) than four-seam fastballs (1). Other than that, I don’t have much else about this 8-0 loss. The Astros basically stunk for the majority of the evening. Combined with the Mariners’ win, puts Houston 2.5 games back of the AL West lead. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great way to kick off the weekend.
Feature photo from Astros on X
Could it had been all smoke and mirrors, hidden behind a great defense?? I also want to point out: this was a Yanier Diaz start versus a Vasquez start. Does this make any difference??
So when Diaz’ return was on the horizon, Rome conjectured that Spencer would stay with Vazquez since Vazquez caught 4 of his 5 May starts that got him the award.
I mentioned this in my catcher preview piece the other day, but that’s not happened at all. His first June start (6/3), Vazquez caught; spencer gave up 4 in 4 innings. Then last 4 starts, he got caught by Price twice and Diaz twice. If he’s not going back to AAA (which he might because he has options), then pair him back up with Vazquez. Let CV catch Imai and Spencer and let Diaz handle the rest of the staff.
(Also Re: smoke and mirrors, the day Spencer won the May pitcher of the month award, when I wrote about it, I actually titled the piece “The Illusion on Crawford Street” )
I think Yainer has a tendency to go rogue. He needs more supervision to correct that tendency. Other than that, he is a good player. Abreu has the same tendency.
The GOAT? Well, he is the GOAT, like an everyday birthday boy. Altuve can do anything he wants.
Maybe Miller is too busy with Imai, Teng, Lambert, and Burrows, and interrupted Arrighetti’s fixing.
Exactly!
After the game, Spencer Arrighetti blamed his bad game on his 5 walks. (Yes, he gave up those HRs, but the damage would be much different without the walks.) Spencer’s whippy delivery is prone to bouts of problematic command/control. That’s why scouts always questioned whether he would be better as a late inning reliever rather than starter.