HOUSTON — When the struggling Astros arrived in Mexico in late April for a series against the Rockies, the players held a meeting and decided the season needed a restart. They put their 7-19 start in the rearview mirror and said the series against the Rockies, in which both teams would be presented on the field as if it were Opening Day, was a chance to start again.
The Astros thought they had the talent to head to another playoff run over the final five months of the season, but their immediate goal was simply to get back to the .500 mark. The climb would take weeks, if not months, but it was time to do it. The window of contention was not yet closing for the Astros.
Two months after sweeping two games from the Rockies in the Mexico Series, the resurgent Astros reached .500 for the first time in 2024 by sweeping two games from the Rockies at Minute Maid Park, capped by Wednesday’s 7-1 victory that was Houston’s season. -high seventh in a row.
“Mexico City against this same Rockies team, we kind of set it up as, ‘Let’s go, let’s get back to our season, let’s forget what happened,'” manager Joe Espada said. “Our goal was to play .500 baseball in May, and our goal in June was to be a .500 team, and we achieved those goals, those targets.
“We have to keep going, but the guys have worked really hard to get here.”
The Astros will be 40-40 in the series opener on Friday against the Mets in New York – a game that will end the first half of their schedule. Houston is 33-21 since moving to Mexico, which is the best record in the American League West over that span, and is 4 1/2 games behind the division’s first-place Mariners.
“We had a rough start,” said utility player Mauricio Dubón. “This type of baseball we play has always been in the back of our minds. We knew we were that kind of team, and we go out there and everyone is doing their job right now. Pitching means giving ourselves a chance, and we also give them a chance. It’s the biggest. Everything is working at the moment.
The remarkable work of unheralded starters Ronel Blanco and Hunter Brown and the emergence of rookie Spencer Arrighetti have spearheaded the rise from the ashes. Arrighetti had his best outing yet, striking out 10 in seven scoreless innings Wednesday.
Arrighetti pounded the strike zone, throwing 70 of his 89 pitches for strikes, to become the first Astros pitcher to reach double-digit strikeouts this year. Arrighetti threw a first-pitch strikeout to 20 of the 24 batters he faced and didn’t walk a batter. He had no three-ball counts from any batter.
“I just trust that the work I’ve done is more than enough, I trust that I’m still capable of going out there and being the guy I was tonight — just being really aggressive and throw everything in the zone and make the guys respect all my offers, and I think that’s exactly what I did,” Arrighetti said. “I attacked the zone as much as I had. could.”
The Astros’ starting pitchers are holding up during a season where they’ve been hit hard by injuries. Starting pitchers Cristian Javier, José Urquidy and JP France are out for the season, and Justin Verlander and Jake Bloss are on the injured list. Meanwhile, Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. are recovering from serious arm injuries.
“This is a team that battles things — injuries, ups and downs, struggles,” Espada said. “They stick together, they fight. We just keep believing in each other. That’s what champions do, and we have to stay together and let it play out. On the field, we throw , we’re playing defense, we’re hitting at the right time, we’re moving guys, we’re playing good baseball on both sides of the ball.
Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who hit .341/.404/.494 in June after a rough April, said the club took time to find its identity. And incredibly, the Astros are 13-6 since slugger Kyle Tucker fouled his shin on June 3 and was placed on the injured list.
“I’m proud of the guys here,” Bregman said. “Of course, there were a lot of bumps along the way this year, but everyone kept fighting and moving forward.”
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