Arrighetti gives ailing Astros rotation big boost with 8-K gem

SEATTLE -- The resurgence of Hunter Brown and the evolution of Spencer Arrighetti in the past couple of weeks have been perhaps the biggest positive developments of the season so far for the Astros, with the exception of Ronel Blanco’s breakout campaign.

And considering how many injuries the Astros have been dealing with in their rotation -- manager Joe Espada said Thursday he would have an update on ailing right-handers Jose Urquidy and Cristian Javier on Friday -- the performances of Brown and Arrighetti have been vital for a rotation that’s lacking depth and health.

Arrighetti delivered his best start Thursday by striking out a career-high eight batters in six scoreless innings, while Alex Bregman homered and tripled as the Astros snapped their three-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Arrighetti is 3-1 with a 3.63 ERA in his past four starts.

“I was a little sloppy at points,” he said. “I feel there was a lot of at-bats I really threw some bad waste pitches, which I’m not really a fan of, but I was able to keep fighting and stay in it. I was really happy that we were able to put some runs up and had some great swings from the hitters today and I was able to give us a chance.”

Each of Houston’s four starting pitchers in the series turned in quality starts, including Brown’s six innings of one-run ball Tuesday. Brown, after a rough stretch to begin the season, has a 3.27 ERA in 22 innings in his past four starts.

“We pitched really well,” Espada said. “We didn’t win the series, but I thought we did a lot of things well. Spencer set the table there with a great performance and the bullpen came in and did a great job. We grinded some at-bats, and Bregman had a big day and [Victor] Caratini with the big homer.”

In the series, Astros starters threw 25 innings and allowed 15 hits, five earned runs, seven walks and 30 strikeouts. It began Monday with Framber Valdez giving up three runs on six innings. Brown was sharp Tuesday and Justin Verlander gave up one run and struck out nine batters in seven innings Wednesday.

“After those three starts, I kind of felt a little internal pressure maybe to keep the trend a little bit and keep giving the guys a chance, because I knew the offense was going to break out at some point,” Arrighetti said. “They did exactly that today, and I was able to repeat what some of the other guys had done this week against a really good lineup.”

Arrighetti got 14 swings and misses among his 90 pitches, including nine on his cutter. He allowed one Seattle batter to reach in each of his six innings, but the Mariners never got a runner past second base. After walking Josh Rojas to start the sixth, Arrighetti struck out the final three hitters he faced to finish with a flourish.

“I threw a couple of pitches I thought were close [and called balls], and obviously that’s going to fire me up a little bit,” Arrighetti said. “It definitely created a little fire in me and those next three hitters. Unfortunately, they had to feel it, I guess.”

Mariners second baseman Dylan Moore said Seattle was hoping to take advantage of the command issues Arrighetti had shown at points this season, but he was in the zone enough. He threw 55 of his 90 pitches for strikes (61 percent).

“So we had to make an adjustment pretty quickly,” Moore said. “He was controlling all of his pitches and he was pitching pretty well. It's a super-low slot with a righty fastball and super-slow offspeed pitches. So yeah, we tried to make the adjustments as best we could, but he was making pitches right [and] left."

Bregman’s second homer of the series, a line drive shot off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert in the fourth inning, put the Astros ahead, 2-0. Caratini led off the fifth with a homer to right-center field, and Bregman tripled and scored in the sixth. It’s the first time the Astros scored runs in more than one inning in a game since May 21.

“Spence did a great job again today giving us a good start,” Bregman said.