Before Spencer Arrighetti produced six strong innings on Wednesday, Houston Astros manager Joe Espada discussed the opportunity facing the pitchers charged with replacing the starters who landed on the injured list during the recent road trip.
Arrighetti made the most of his first shot, striking out 10 batters to help the Astros record a 3-1 victory over the visiting Colorado Rockies. The teams play the final game of the interleague series on Thursday.
The Astros lost Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai during their 1-9 road trip, facilitating the need to dig into their farm system for starting pitching. Houston hopes that Arrighetti initiated a timely trend of quality starts.
“I know that we’re going to get our starters to go deep in the game,” Espada said. “We’re in a stretch where we haven’t been able to get that stuff done, but eventually it’s going to happen.
“It’s nice to see Spencer do what he did and give our bullpen a bit of a rest and an opportunity to sweep the Rockies (Thursday).”
Right-hander Ryan Weiss (0-2, 7.36 ERA) will start the series finale for the Astros on Thursday.
All five of his appearances this season have come out of the bullpen, including an outing last Friday when he tossed 64 pitches and allowed two runs on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings in a 9-6 road loss to the Seattle Mariners.
Weiss had consecutive scoreless appearances against the Boston Red Sox and Athletics on March 30 and April 3, allowing three hits and one walk with five strikeouts over five innings.
Weiss, who made his major league debut on March 27 against the Los Angeles Angels, will make his first career appearance against Colorado. He spent the past two seasons in the KBO League.
While the Rockies will turn to Juan Mejia (0-2, 5.40) as the opener for Thursday, Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer said fellow right-hander Chase Dollander (1-1, 4.61) will get the bulk of the innings.
Dollander pitched 4 1/3 innings following an opener on April 4 and April 9, and allowed two runs on eight hits and two walks with nine strikeouts combined. His three relief appearances of four innings have tied the franchise record for the second-most in a single season. Dollander also worked four innings on March 30 at Toronto and allowed four runs on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts.
Dollander is 0-2 with a 7.27 ERA in two career starts against the Astros, with both coming last season. He was the pitcher of record in a 4-0 road loss to the Astros on Aug. 27, 2025, after allowing one run on three hits and four walks with seven strikeouts over six innings.
The Rockies saw first baseman Troy Johnston and third baseman Willi Castro depart after being hit by pitches in the first and fourth innings, respectively. Johnston sustained a right quad contusion while Castro, whose RBI double in the second accounted for the Rockies’ lone run, left with a right hand contusion.
“Troy is going to be fine. He just couldn’t move side to side out there to play defense,” Schaeffer said. “Willi, X-rays negative, which is good. Willi got hit right in the hand. It’s going to be sore.”
–Field Level Media
