<\/p>\n
Astros right fielder Cam Smith robs the Rangers’ Brandon Nimmo of home run during the first inning Thursday night in Arlington.<\/p>\n
Ron Jenkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – MAY 28: Evan Carter #32 of the Texas Rangers slides safely into third base before Spencer Arrighetti #41 of the Houston Astros applies the tag during the fourth inning at Globe Life Field on May 28, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Ron Jenkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – MAY 28: Cam Smith #11 of the Houston Astros goes up to catch a deep fly ball off the bat of Brandon Nimmo #24 of the Texas Rangers during the first inning at Globe Life Field on May 28, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Ron Jenkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – MAY 28: Spencer Arrighetti #41 of the Houston Astros pitches against the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Globe Life Field on May 28, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ron Jenkins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Ron Jenkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON\u00a0\u2014 The Houston Astros<\/a> embarked on this 11-day road trip on the heels of a shutout loss at home, their offense stymied by Nathan Eovaldi as they fell to 10 games below .500.<\/p>\n Symmetry underscored progress made on the road, modest though it might be for a team still toiling under the even point. With a 5-1 win Thursday over the Texas Rangers and Eovaldi, a recent nemesis, Houston secured a series victory at Globe Life Field and punctuated a positive trip.<\/p>\n The Astros won six of its final seven games and finished 7-3 across series against the Twins, Cubs and Rangers. It is the first time since 2018 the Astros have won at least seven games on a 10-game trip. It inched their record to 26-32, the closest they have been to .500 since April 23.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Seeking to sustain momentum from a sweep at Wrigley Field, the Astros took three of four from Texas. For as abysmally as they started, the Astros are only 2 \u00bd games out of first place in the weak American League West, where no team was above .500 as of Thursday night.<\/p>\n A combined no-hitter<\/a> and a three-game tear from Yordan Alvarez<\/a> helped Houston claim two of its first three games against the Rangers. Alvarez was quieted Thursday, but another strong outing by Spencer Arrighetti<\/a> and contributions elsewhere in the lineup more than compensated.<\/p>\n Jeremy Pe\u00f1a and Isaac Paredes hit home runs against Eovaldi in the first inning, staking Arrighetti to a three-run lead three batters into the game. Taylor Trammell and Cam Smith added RBI hits in the third. Eovaldi, an Alvin native, lasted seven innings but received little support from his own lineup.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Arrighetti threw six innings of one-run ball, continuing his excellent run since rejoining the Astros from Triple-A. Nate Pearson got two outs in the seventh and bequeathed two baserunners to Steven Okert, who stranded them by getting pinch-hitter Justin Foscue to pop out.<\/p>\n Okert issued a one-out hit-by-pitch and walk in the eighth. Enyel De Los Santos, who had worked a five-out save Wednesday, returned for two critical outs, striking out Evan Carter and inducing a pop-out by Jake Burger. Bryan Abreu worked a clean ninth with two strikeouts in his first appearance since Sunday.<\/p>\n Five pitchers for Houston combined to allow four hits, one for extra bases. The Astros totaled five hits, but early damage proved enough. They have won consecutive series for the first time this season.<\/p>\n Quality from Arrighetti<\/p>\n Arrighetti\u2019s outing did not have the hallmarks of dominance. He needed 94 pitches to cover six innings. He induced just three whiffs on 39 swings. The Rangers averaged a 91 mph exit velocity on 17 balls put into play against him. Arrighetti, still, allowed just one run on three hits.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Arrighetti has a 1.34 ERA in eight starts. Just five Astros pitchers have posted a lower ERA through their first eight starts of a season: Justin Verlander (2022, \u201918), Roger Clemens (2005), Randy Johnson (2005), Bob Knepper (1988, \u201981) and Nolan Ryan (1981).<\/p>\n Josh Jung hit a cutter 424 feet into the left-center field seats to open the second inning. Arrighetti faced 19 more batters without allowing a run. He hit two and walked one but allowed just two more hits\u00a0\u2014 an Ezequiel Duran single in the second and a Jung single in the sixth.<\/p>\n Texas took just two at-bats with a man in scoring position against Arrighetti. Neither produced a hit. Of Arrighetti\u2019s eight outings since being recalled from Triple-A, four are quality starts. The Astros have won seven of eight games started by the right-hander.<\/p>\n Early statement<\/p>\n In his previous four starts against the Astros, Eovaldi had allowed two total runs over 27 \u2153 innings. That included tossing seven scoreless innings at Daikin Park on May 17, where he threw his splitter 47% of the time to effect. Astros manager Joe Espada noted pregame Thursday his lineup\u2019s need to \u201clay off the split down in the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to bring him up,\u201d Espada said. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s not as easy as I\u2019m making it sound, but we have to be disciplined, we\u2019ve got to get him up and be able to do damage when he misses in the middle of the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n The first inning illustrated that ideal. Pe\u00f1a took three pitches before Eovaldi left a splitter up in the zone, which Pe\u00f1a sent 424 feet into the second deck in left field. At 108.8 mph off the bat, it was his second-hardest-hit ball in play this season. Pe\u00f1a also hit the longest home run of his career, a 454-foot blast in this series on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Eovaldi, being ultra-careful with\u00a0Alvarez, walked him on eight pitches. Isaac Paredes then saw a first-pitch sinker up in the zone and pulled it 357 feet over the wall in the left-field corner. Eovaldi had allowed multiple home runs in just two of his first 10 starts this season. The Astros added to that total three batters into Thursday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n Quite a catch<\/p>\n After his May 15 start, in which he took a no-hit bid into the eighth against the Rangers, Arrighetti joked: \u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s too many pictures of me going like this (looking shocked) because my outfielder made a catch that I didn\u2019t think they could possibly make.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Add another to the ledger.<\/p>\n Arrighetti\u2019s third batter of the game, Brandon Nimmo, drove a fastball 356 feet to right field. Cam Smith tracked it to the wall, leapt, reached over the yellow home-run line and brought the ball back. His catch ended the inning.<\/p>\n As Smith started jogging toward the infield, Arrighetti stood near the mound with both hands on his cap, staring toward right field with his mouth slightly agape.<\/p>\n Injury notes<\/p>\n Jose Altuve will meet the Astros when they return to Houston and go through a pregame workout Friday at Daikin Park,\u00a0Espada said, as the second baseman recovers from a left oblique strain.<\/p>\n Josh Hader pitched back-to-back days on his rehab assignment at Triple-A Sugar Land, possibly the final step for the closer before the Astros consider activating him.<\/p>\n Hunter Brown will make his second rehab start Friday at Triple-A Sugar Land in his return from a shoulder strain. Cristian Javier will throw a live batting practice Friday at Daikin Park\u00a0\u2014 his first time facing hitters in his recovery from a shoulder strain.<\/p>\n Lance McCullers Jr. has not resumed playing catch after being placed on the injured list last week due to shoulder inflammation, Espada said. Reliever Bennett Sousa, who\u2019s on the IL due to elbow inflammation, had a follow-up appointment with a doctor Thursday, Espada said, and was at Globe Life Field pregame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astros right fielder Cam Smith robs the Rangers’ Brandon Nimmo of home run during the first inning Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-313378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}