CHICAGO -- Astros pitcher Spencer Arrighetti had issues gripping the baseball Friday afternoon, which put him in a couple of difficult spots on a chilly afternoon against the Cubs. A walk and two hit batters loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning, and a pair of one-out walks in the fifth put his back against the wall once again.
Arrighetti, whose maturation into a front-line starter has been one of the best storylines in the Astros’ poor start, dug deep to escape both jams and completed five scoreless innings to lead the Astros to a 4-2 win over the Cubs -- Houston’s first win at Wrigley Field since June 22, 2013.
“Spencer, he grinded through those five innings,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He expressed having a tough time gripping the baseball and you could tell by how the pitches were finishing. He competed, got himself a win. He’s really stepped up and grinded through those five innings of work.”
Arrighetti improved to 6-1 in seven starts and lowered his ERA to 1.32 in 41 innings, leaving him 11 innings shy of qualifying among the league leaders. He’s the first Astros pitcher with an ERA of 1.32 or better through his first seven starts of a season since Justin Verlander (1.13) in 2018.
“You could just tell the level of confidence this young man is pitching [with],” Espada said. “He knows, ‘I’m against the ropes, but I have enough weapons to punch back and get back into this fight,’ and that’s exactly what he’s done. Our bullpen came in and did a really nice job.”
Arrighetti gave up two hits in the first inning on soft contact, walked four and struck out five batters. Because of his control issues, he was at 89 pitches through five after throwing at least 20 pitches in three different innings, forcing the bullpen to get 12 outs.
He threw his curveball and fastball 32 times each and his sweeper 17 times, getting six whiffs on the curve in 15 swings. Two of those whiffs came on strikeouts of Cubs cleanup hitter Ian Happ -- one with the bases loaded and no outs in the third, and another with runners at first and second and one out in the fifth, drawing boos from the afternoon crowd.
“Honestly, I just rocked with what I had,” Arrighetti said. “That is the worst that I've felt about the way that I was throwing the ball all year. I just didn't really feel like things were coming out the way that I wanted them to, but the only answer that I had for it was to try to make an adjustment in the game. And I feel like I did a good enough job of that to keep runs off the board, so I'm obviously proud of that, but just not happy with the way that I threw the ball. I know I need to be a lot better than that.”
Arrighetti is averaging 5.49 walks per nine innings in seven starts, having walked at least four batters in five starts. When Arrighetti was in the zone, the Cubs had trouble squaring him up. Chicago didn’t put a ball in play that was harder than 95.7 mph against Arrighetti, and he had an average exit velocity against of only 79.4 mph. Lefty Steven Okert replaced Arrighetti in the sixth and allowed a towering two-run homer to Pete Crow-Armstrong that cut the lead to 4-2.
“Even when guys are putting bats on the ball, they're missing it a little bit,” Arrighetti said. “And I think those things are like a better predictor of how I'm actually doing in terms of throwing it [than ERA]. Obviously, not every time I'll load the bases and get out of it scot-free, you know? … I still got a lot of stuff to work on.”
Arrighetti worked with catcher Yainer Diaz in his first three starts of the season, but has been paired with veteran Christian Vázquez in his last four starts after Diaz strained his oblique earlier this month. Vázquez helped guide him through his jams Friday, in addition to going 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs.
“I've been really, really fortunate in my career [that] I've had a lot of really cerebral catchers that understand what hitters are trying to do, understand my strengths, and how to play that to their weaknesses,” Arrighetti said. “He’s awesome. He really is, and he homered today. He’s really doing it all right now.”