Spencer Arrighetti Reminded Astros Fans Why They Need Him in Rotation

On a night when Yordan Alvarez hit his seventh home run, the Houston Astros got the true boost they needed from Spencer Arrighetti.

Houston's starting rotation has been besieged by injuries for the first two weeks of this season. Houston entered Wednesday's game in last place in the American League West, though they were only 2.5 games behind the leader. Houston promoted Arrighetti before the game and gave him the ball for his first start in the Majors this season. He gave the Astros exactly what they needed.

Arrighetti went six innings, allowed two hits, one earned run with four walks and 10 strikeouts as Houston beat Colorado, 3-1.

Spencer Arrighetti Returns to the Rotation

Home Cooked Spaghetti.#ChaseTheFight pic.twitter.com/Kvp10KsTVU
— Houston Astros (@astros) April 16, 2026

Arrighetti threw 100 pitches, 61 of which were strikes. The right-hander threw six different pitches, as he leaned hard into his curveball, throwing it 38 times. That was his best swing-and-miss pitch the entire game. It induced 22 swings, with four called strikes. Of those 22 swings, 16 were whiffs, the majority of his 20 whiffs for the game.

The only run he allowed was in the second inning, as he allowed Colorado’s Willi Castro to hit an RBI double after Arrighetti walked Ezequiel Tovar. Meanwhile he scattered four walks and avoided additional damage as the Astros scored two runs in the first inning to take the lead and got a nudge from Alvarez’s seventh home run of the season in the third inning.

This was the perfect antidote to the last several days in which the Astros have placed three pitchers on the injured list. But Arrighetti showed he was ready for the moment.

He started the season at Triple-A Sugar Land and made three starts before his promotion. He wasn’t involved in a decision, but he had a 1.26 ERA in 14.1 innings, as he allowed two earned runs and six walks against 20 strikeouts. Batters hit just .111 against him.

He pitched in seven MLB games last season after he missed three months with a broken right thumb. Arrighetti went 1-5 with a 5.35 ERA with 31 strikeouts and 20 walks in 35 innings.

Before that, he made his MLB debut in 2024 in the Astros’ rotation as he went 7-13 with a 4.53 ERA in 29 games (28 starts) with 171 strikeouts and 65 walks in 145 innings.

He’s been with Houston his entire career. He was the Astros’ sixth-round pick in 2021 out of Louisiana.

The Astros’ injured list is a mess from a pitching standpoint. Houston just placed right-hander Tatsuya Imai on the 15-day injured list with right arm fatigue. He’s the latest starter to hit the IL. Houston is also without right-hander Cristian Javier (Grade 2 right shoulder strain), right-hander Hunter Brown (Grade 2 right shoulder strain) and right-hander Cody Bolton (mid-back inflammation).

Other Houston pitchers on the 15-day IL include left-hander Bennett Sousa (left oblique strain), right-hander Nate Pearson (right elbow surgery recovery) and left-hander Josh Hader (left biceps tendinitis). Pitchers on the 60-day IL include right-hander Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Brandon Walter. All are recovering from Tommy John surgery.

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