JUPITER, Fla. -- Spencer Arrighetti, the Astros’ top pitching prospect, flashed the tools Sunday morning that have the club believing he can help the big league club this season. He even ditched one of them.

Arrighetti started for Houston in the Spring Breakout game against the Cardinals' top prospects and threw two hitless innings, sending down six of the seven batters he faced while throwing 25 pitches (14 strikes). Arrighetti touched 95.4 mph with his fastball, walked a batter and hit a batter, but escaped unscathed in a 1-0 loss.

“I still have a lot to work on,” Arrighetti said. “We’re turning the corner and about to head into the season and I had a little bit of a break between outings. My last one was [March 8], so I felt like I was shaking off some rust today. That’s never a great feeling, but I felt like I still competed a little bit. Those are all great players across the board and they were putting bats on pitches I was swinging my head at.”

The No. 3-ranked Astros prospect by MLB Pipeline, Arrighetti threw all five of his pitches, saying he’d ditched the sinker he came to camp with while hoping to add to his four-seamer, cutter, curveball, changeup and sweeper.

“I’m actually trying to chase some more vertical break with the four-seam instead and the sinker was kind of taking a little bit away from that,” he said.

Arrighetti, a sixth-round pick by the Astros in 2021 out of the University of Louisiana, could make his Major League debut at some point this year after reaching Triple-A in 2023, especially with Houston dealing with some injuries among the starting staff.

Arrighetti has thrown twice in Grapefruit League play this year -- two scoreless innings against the Tigers on Feb. 26 and three innings on March 8 against the Phillies in which he gave up five runs (four earned) and five hits in three innings.

“I faced a World Series-caliber lineup and I definitely got tested in a big way that I hadn’t been before,” he said. “I just learned that mistakes get hit a lot harder against those kinds of guys. I had some people on the ropes in that game that I really should have executed better, and maybe things go a little bit better. The big takeaway from the one in Clearwater is I need to control runners a little bit better.”

Blubaugh adds two scoreless of his own
No. 8 prospect A.J. Blubaugh picked up the baton from Arrighetti with two scoreless innings of his own. The 23-year-old right-hander only allowed a double to Cardinals first baseman Chandler Redmond but generally kept his stuff inside the zone, throwing 15 of his 24 pitches for strikes while walking none.

“I was facing some good bats and trying to work around them,” Blubaugh said.“I definitely was a little wild this morning and I was able to work through that. That’s good for me to know through the season.”

He ran his fastball up to 94.6 mph and also exhibited a 76-79 mph curveball and 79-81 mph changeup. Blubaugh worked as both a starter and piggyback reliever in 2023, posting a 4.41 ERA with 112 strikeouts in 100 innings between High-A Asheville and Double-A Corpus Christi. His control should keep getting him multi-inning looks when he returns to the upper levels this spring.

“My biggest word right now is just consistency,” Blubaugh said. “That’s finding my lines for all my shapes and finding where to start each pitch and how to attack and execute to each different batter.”

Wagner keeps on hitting
Will Wagner, the Astros’ No. 15-ranked prospect, showed off his bat-to-ball skills in the third inning with a clean knock up the middle, which came one at-bat after he struck out to start the game. Wagner was expecting a two-strike changeup and got it, stroking a single through the infield.

“It was really fun,” he said. “There are a lot of prospects out here, a lot of future MLB players. It was a lot of fun just to see everyone and just go out there and compete.”

The son of Astros legend Billy Wagner, Will’s approach is among the best in Houston’s system, which brings results when combined with his compact left-handed swing. Wagner missed time with a hand injury last year and played in only 65 games in 2023, slashing .337/.420/.518 while spending most of the season at Double-A.

“He’s a pure hitter, so anywhere you put him, he’s going to figure out a way to make adjustments,” Double-A manager Joe Thon said. “He hits the ball clean. The guy works, and there’s a reason why people have been pushing for him to keep going.”