Astros hit target set in Mexico, reach .500 for first time

HOUSTON -- When the struggling Astros arrived in Mexico City in late April for a series against the Rockies, the players held a meeting and decided the season needed a reboot. They put their 7-19 start in the rearview mirror and declared that the series against the Rockies, in which both teams would be introduced on the field like it was Opening Day, was a chance to start anew.

The Astros believed they had the talent to make a push toward another playoff run in the final five months of the season, but their immediate goal was to simply get back to the .500 mark. The climb would take weeks, if not months, but there was time to get it done. The window of contention wasn’t closing on the Astros just quite yet.

Two months after sweeping two games from the Rockies in the Mexico City Series, the resurgent Astros reached .500 for the first time in 2024 by sweeping two games from the Rockies at Minute Maid Park, capped by Wednesday’s 7-1 win that was Houston’s season-high seventh in a row.

“Mexico City against this same Rockies team, we kind of made that date as, ‘Let’s go, let’s get back into our season, let’s forget about what happened,’” manager Joe Espada said. “Our goal was to play .500 baseball in May, and our goal in June was to be a .500 club, and we’ve made those goals, those targets.

“We’ve got to keep going, but the guys have worked really hard to get to this point.”

The Astros will take a 40-40 record into Friday’s series opener against the Mets in New York -- a game which will end the first half of their schedule. Houston has gone 33-21 since it arrived in Mexico, which is the best record in the American League West in that span, and it is 4 1/2 games behind the first-place Mariners in the division.

“We had a rough beginning,” utility player Mauricio Dubón said. “This kind of baseball we’re playing was always in the back of our minds. We knew we were this kind of team, and we’re going out there and everybody is doing their jobs right now. Pitching is giving us a chance, and we’re giving them a chance, too. That’s the biggest one. Everything is clicking right now.”

The stellar work of unheralded starters Ronel Blanco and Hunter Brown and rookie Spencer Arrighetti’s emergence have spearheaded the rise from the ashes. Arrighetti had his best outing yet, striking out 10 batters in seven scoreless innings Wednesday.

Arrighetti pounded the strike zone, throwing 70 of his 89 pitches for strikes, to become the first Astros pitcher to reach double-digit strikeouts this year. Arrighetti threw a first-pitch strike to 20 of the 24 batters he faced and didn’t walk a batter. He didn’t have a three-ball count on any batter.

“Just trusting that the work I’ve been doing is more than enough, trusting that I’m still capable of going out there and being the guy that I was tonight -- just being really aggressive and throwing everything in the zone and making guys respect all my offerings, and I feel I did just that,” Arrighetti said. “I attacked the zone as much as I could.”

Astros starting pitchers are holding the line during a season in which they’ve been hit hard by injuries. Starters Cristian Javier, José Urquidy and J.P. France are out for the season, and Justin Verlander and Jake Bloss are on the injured list. Meanwhile, Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. are working their way back from serious arm injuries.

“It’s a team that fights through stuff -- injuries, ups and downs, struggles,” Espada said. "They stick to each other, they fight. We don’t stop believing in each other. That’s what champions do, and we have to keep it together and let this play out. On the field, we’re pitching, playing defense, we’re getting timely hitting, we’re moving guys over. We’re playing good baseball on both sides of the ball.”

Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who’s slashing .341/.404/.494 in June after a rough April, said the club took a while to find its identity. And incredibly, the Astros are 13-6 since slugger Kyle Tucker fouled a ball off his shin June 3 and went on the injured list.

“I’m proud of the guys in here,” Bregman said. “Obviously, there’s been a lot of bumps along the way this year, but everybody kept fighting and kept going.”