Eleven days ago, the Astros left Houston needing wins. They returned with seven of them.
Spencer Arrighetti threw six innings of one-run ball Thursday night, and the Houston Astros closed out the Silver Boot Series with a 5-1 win over the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.
Houston took three of four from Texas, improved to 26-32, and moved ahead of the Rangers into third place in the AL West standings. The Astros finished an 11-day road trip at 7-3—their best record on a trip of that length since 2018—and return home just 2.5 games behind division-leading Seattle.
The game was effectively over before Nathan Eovaldi retired a batter. Jeremy Peña led off with a 424-foot home run to the second deck in left field—his second-hardest-hit ball in play this season—on a splitter left up in the zone. Yordan Alvarez followed with an eight-pitch walk, and Isaac Paredes pulled a first-pitch sinker 357 feet over the left-field wall for a two-run shot and a 3-0 lead. Taylor Trammell and Cam Smith added RBI hits in the third to round out the scoring.
Arrighetti was not overpowering—94 pitches, three whiffs on 39 swings, and a 91 mph average exit velocity allowed—but he was effective. He lowered his ERA to 1.34 through eight starts, a mark surpassed by only Justin Verlander (2022 and 2018), Roger Clemens (2005), Randy Johnson (2005), Bob Knepper (1988 and 1981), and Nolan Ryan (1981) over their first eight starts of a season with Houston.
Arrighetti also had help. In the first inning, Cam Smith raced back to the right-field wall and robbed Brandon Nimmo of extra bases with a leaping catch that preserved Houston’s early lead. The play left Arrighetti standing near the mound with both hands on his cap.
Josh Jung’s solo homer in the second was the only blemish on an otherwise dominant pitching effort. Eovaldi, who had allowed just two total runs in his previous four starts against Houston, lasted seven innings but had no answer for the Astros’ first-inning barrage.
Nate Pearson, Steven Okert, Enyel De Los Santos, and Bryan Abreu combined for three scoreless innings to finish the win.
The Astros return to Daikin Park on Friday to open a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Kai-Wei Teng, Peter Lambert, and Tatsuya Imai are the announced starters for Milwaukee.
Houston’s rotation picture is also beginning to stabilize. After Jason Alexander was optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land on Wednesday, manager Joe Espada said the club expects to operate with a five-man rotation for the foreseeable future. Hunter Brown is scheduled to make his second rehab start Friday for Triple-A Sugar Land, with a mid-June return still the target.
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