Arrighetti and Hader earn AL monthly honors
HOUSTON, TX - Major League Baseball announced today that Houston Astros RHP Spencer Arrighetti has been named the American League’s August Rookie of the Month and LHP Josh Hader has been named the AL’s August Reliever of the Month.
It marked the first time that two Astros players received a monthly award in the same month since IF Alex Bregman won Player of the Month and OF Yordan Alvarez won Rookie of the Month in August 2019. The duo are also the first Astros to win a monthly award since Alvarez was named the AL Player of the Month for September 2023.
Arrighetti becomes the first Astro to win Rookie of the Month since Alvarez won the award in August 2019. He’s the first Astros pitcher to receive the award since RHP Colin McHugh won in September 2014. The 24-year-old went 3-2 and posted a 1.95 ERA (7ER/32.1IP), a .168 opponent batting average (19x113) and struck out 47 batters in his five starts during the month. Per STATS, he became the second rookie in the Modern Era (since 1901) to record at least 47 strikeouts while allowing 19-or-fewer hits in a calendar month, joining RHP Kerry Wood, who did so for the Chicago Cubs in May 1998 (60 strikeouts, 19 hits). Arrighetti opened the month with a 12-strikeout outing on Aug. 4 vs. Tampa Bay and followed that with a career-high 13 strikeouts on Aug. 10 at Boston. The 13 strikeouts were the second-most in a single game from an Astros rookie, behind only RHP J.R. Richard’s historic 15-strikeout effort in his MLB debut on September 5, 1971. He also became the first rookie in AL history to record 12-plus strikeouts in back-to-back outings. In his final start of the month, coming on Aug. 28 at Philadelphia, he carried a no-hit bid into the eighth, finishing his outing with 7.2 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts.
Hader earned his sixth career Reliever of the Month honor, last doing so in April 2023 with the San Diego Padres. Through 13 appearances in August, he went 3-1 with eight saves, while recording a 0.68 ERA (1ER/13.1IP), a .071 opponent batting average (3x42), a 0.60 WHIP and striking out 17 batters. The Astros went 11-2 through his 13 appearances in August. Hader’s standout month included a portion of his streak of 29 consecutive converted save opportunities. It marked the longest single-season saves streak in Astros history and is the longest saves streak in the AL this season. Among AL relievers this season, Hader ranks second in strikeouts (90) and strikeouts-per-nine-innings (13.43), and is tied for second in saves (29)
The strong months from Arrighetti and Hader came as part of a historic month for the Astros pitching staff as a whole. Astros pitchers combined to hold opponents to a .185 batting average during the month, which ranks as the second-lowest team opponent batting average allowed in any single month by any team in MLB history. The Astros also set their franchise record for the month of August with 291 strikeouts as a staff.