Arrighetti introspective after debut
Shaky command proves costly for Cinco Ranch grad
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Spencer Arrighetti landed in Albuquerque, N.M., early Tuesday with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, ready for a homecoming of sorts. The Astros’ Triple-A affiliate is playing this week in the city where Arrighetti was born and raised. His grandparents traveled in to greet him. Houston’s top pitching prospect had been in town mere hours when he received the call he had coveted all his life.
It rerouted him to Kansas City. Wednesday, Arrighetti arrived at Kauffman Stadium to make his major league debut, an occasion that invited attention and that few expected to occur so early this season. With a rotation rattled by injuries and a beleaguered bullpen, the Astros summoned the 24-year-old right-hander, asking him to help prop up a pitching staff that is toiling to piece together games.
Five starting pitchers are on the Astros’ injured list. Arrighetti, a Cinco Ranch High School graduate, is the team’s readiest pitching prospect. A dearth of depth options accelerated the ascent of a pitcher with 15 starts above Double-A to the major league club in the 13th game of their season. The first at-bat and inning of Arrighetti’s debut unfolded as everyone might have dreamt. By the third inning, things had spiraled into a less desirable result.
Arrighetti held the Royals scoreless for two innings, navigating them on 36 pitches. He then threw 43 pitches in his third inning, territory no team wants to have a pitcher reach, much less a top prospect. Manager Joe Espada said afterward it was a product of “just trying to get through the game” and still have relievers available for Thursday. The Royals’ seven-run third inning was Arrighetti’s last in the Astros’ 11-2 loss.
“He’s going to get a second opportunity,” Espada said. “You take the positive out of it, and you learn from it. And the negative, you adjust, and you grow. Pitching in the big leagues is not an easy task. But he does have the weapons to be successful. Our job is to help him be successful.”
Arrighetti, still in full uniform after the game, was introspective about his debut in a five-minute session with reporters. He said he was “a little bit of an anxious mess” before the game but settled down by his first pitch. He said striking out his first batter aided his confidence but acknowledged lapses in execution with some pitches later on.
“I feel like today I made some mistakes with fourseams, I made some mistakes with spin that I normally wouldn’t,” Arrighetti said. “And these guys are really, really good hitters. Even if I miss by a little bit, it gets put in play, it finds a hole. I learned that really quickly today. I wouldn’t say it was one of my bad stuff or control days. But I do think that I didn’t do the best job controlling everything I could control in terms of execution tonight.”
Arrighetti’s arsenal includes a fastball, cutter, sweeping slider and curveball. He ran the fastball up to 97 mph in his first inning Wednesday. But his command of the fastball and slider was shaky. He countered early by relying on his cutter. He struck out his first hitter, Maikel Garcia, looking on an inside cutter and his second, Bobby Witt Jr., swinging on a cutter away.
“That’s the pitch I go to to get me out of trouble, get soft contact, keep me in counts where maybe I’m not being the most competitive with some other offerings,” Arrighetti said of the cutter, which he added in the middle of last season. “And yeah, I felt pretty good about the cutter today.”
But Arrighetti said he was “not really finding” the feel for his sweeper, a pitch that in the minors he “can go to any time to get soft contact, get a whiff.” Royals hitters whiffed on four of eight swings against that pitch but did a good job of not chasing it outside the strike zone. Arrighetti also induced just five called strikes or whiffs on the 25 fastballs he threw.
As a result, Arrighetti struggled to put hitters away. He allowed three hits and a walk after getting ahead in the count 1-2. He finished with three strikeouts and induced nine total misses on 36 swings.
Not much contact against Arrighetti was loud. The Royals put just three balls into play against him with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher, two for hits. Four of their eight hits against him left the bat at 82 mph or less. Arrighetti did not mention that after the game; he did point to a need to “work on my spin offerings in two-strike counts; I feel like I left a lot on the table there.”
Espada credited the Royals with adjusting their second time through the lineup. Arrighetti retired six of his first eight hitters. Eight of his next nine reached base.
Arrighetti and catcher Yainer Diaz tried to mix in a curveball and harder slider his second time through. But the Royals took most of them and homed in on his fastball and cutter.
Afterward, Arrighetti was thorough and critical in reflecting on his outing. Espada’s indication that he’ll get at least a second start makes sense, as the Astros do not have an off day before his turn comes around again and Justin Verlander is slated for a second minor league rehab start this weekend before rejoining their rotation. Arrighetti was asked what he can take into it from his debut.
“I think I just need to be sharper the second time through the lineup,” Arrighetti said. “I think I maybe got away with a little bit early, just because they hadn’t seen my stuff yet, seen the way I throw. But obviously, that second time through, I know I need to be in the zone when I need to be in and out of it when I need to be out.
“And I think the biggest takeaway is that this is all a big learning curve. I’m feeling newer than ever. And I think that’s a good thing. I think it’s a challenge for me. And I think there’s a lot that I can take away.”