12-K day reflects Houston Astros rookie Spencer Arrighetti's increasing belief in his stuff

Spencer Arrighetti on Sunday helped the Astros match a franchise record of striking out at least 10 batters in 10 consecutive games. Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer

Spencer Arrighetti struck out a career-high 12 in six innings of a 1-0 loss to the Rays on Sunday at Minute Maid Park. It was the most strikeouts by an Astros starter this season.

The 24-year-old from Katy walked two, gave up three singles and two doubles. The only run he allowed came on a pair of third-inning doubles by Dylan Carlson and Brandon Lowe.

On Arrighetti's 100th pitch of the afternoon, he got Jose Siri to ground into a double play on a 79 mph sweeper, yelled out and pumped his fist as he headed toward the dugout.

“(I had) pretty good spin today, my breaking stuff was working pretty well, and my fastball was pretty good. It was probably up in the zone where I like to throw it. Generally, I executed pretty well across the board,” Arrighetti said. “There was a couple of doubles in there that I could’ve controlled a little bit better (with) a better pitch selection or executed better. I feel like the strikeouts are just a product of throwing good pitches.

“These games have generally been a lot better. When I talk about finding the middle more often, I feel like I’m either there or I’m kind of above it some days. A lot of that just has to do with paying a lot of attention and being intentional with the throwing program, my outings in between. And my bullpen gauging my intensity a little bit better and making it more about executing rather than just throwing nasty stuff for the sake of throwing.”

With Arrighetti having thrown 92 pitches through five innings, it looked like his day might be done, but he told manager Joe Espada he still had more in the tank.

“I feel really good. They asked me in the fifth inning when my pitch count was high if I had anything left, and it was a definite yes from me. I feel like that’s a good sign,” Arrighetti said. “I’m weathering the outings well. I haven't thrown a ton in the past. This is only my third full season of professional baseball, but I feel great at this point, even better than I have in the past.”

Arrighetti helped the Astros tie a franchise record. They have struck out at least 10 batters in 10 straight games, a feat last accomplished in 2022. Before the game, he wasn't sure he'd be the man to extend that streak.

“I had the worst pregame bullpen here. I look at it like hitting on the range. Doesn’t matter what you got. It’s just an indication of what you might be working with,” Arrighetti said. “A lot of the times you can choose to ignore it, or you can get a little too high on it if it was too good, so I think of it like bad bullpen before the game is a good thing sometimes. You get all the bad ones out in there and then go deal on the game.”

Arrighetti became the first Astros rookie to strike out 12 batters since Collin McHugh in 2014. He exited the game with a 5.33 ERA.

“That was a great performance,” Espada said. “His fastball was really good. He threw some really good cutters. He had all his pitches working. He was ahead of the count, too, a lot. Competitive pitches once he was ahead. Man, I wish we would have scored some runs for him.”

As Arrighetti’s number of outings climbs, so does the doubt he will keep performing well. But he remains calm with trusting in what he does between games. He shared that a simple piece of paper had everything to do with that.

“Hunter Brown gave me a piece of paper one day that had a quote on it from an interview that I had given when I was in AA or AAA. It (was) about getting hit around and responding well,” Arrighetti said. “(Of) taking away more from the work that I was doing in between outings than numbers from games, and I feel like I just committed to that for the last month or so.”

The history he achieved Sunday came from believing in whom the Astros called up, he said, not on transforming to fit into the big leagues.

“I struggled when I got up here to trust that what I was doing was good enough. I kind of had a mini-identity crisis trying to figure out who I have to be to make the stuff work,” Arrighetti said. “The outings have gone substantially better the more that I just try to do what I’ve done in the past. It boils down to believing that the way that I was when I got here was more than enough and I could go use that stuff to the best of my ability by executing it.”

By Perla Paredes Hernandez, Staff writer