The Astros couldn’t hit a lick tonight.

But at least their pitching was terrible.

Oh well, in this game, the progress of Spencer Arrighetti after months on IL was of as much interest as the outcome. (Oh, I forgot. The Mariners are now tied with the Stros for first.)

After getting an F in his first start, we should be happy with Arrighetti’s progress. I say C+.

In 3+ innings in his first start, Arrighetti allowed 11 hits. Today, Arrighetti finished five innings and surrendered only one hit. His trouble today was control. He allowed five walks, two of them in the third inning, when, with the bases loaded, Arrighetti hit a batter and then surrendered a sac fly.

All in all, not bad. There’s hope for Arrighetti’s future. A five-inning, two-run outing made a hero out of Cristian Javier yesterday, but yesterday, oh yesterday, hitting was such an easy game to play. Today, the Astros’ bats found a place to hide away. Newly minted Red Sox pitcher Dustin May shut out the Astros for six innings. Only Jeremy Pena had an answer for May, going 3-3 against the Sox starter.

And after the bullpen almost gave away a sure win last night, it fell apart tonight after Arrighetti’s departure. In the sixth inning, Steven Okert allowed an infield single with two outs before giving way to just-off-the-IL Shawn Dubin. Dubin promptly gave up two (2) two-run homers, the first to Carlos Narvaez and the other —damnit— to Alex Bregman. Bregman’s hit the right-field foul pole.

Before his injury, Dubin had a 1.33 ERA. After giving up four runs in 0.1 innings, it jumped to 3.05. With Josh Hader gone, let’s hope that Dubin’s first appearance back is an anomaly and that he can rediscover his early-season form.

In the seventh, just-recalled Colton Gordon allowed an unearned run after a Carlos Correa bobble at third and a Wilyer Abreu RBI double.

The Sox run-ruled the Astros in the eighth inning. Gordon gave up a solo homer to Roman Anthony to straight-away center, followed by three singles, and a double, adding four more runs to the Boston total, making the score 12-0.

There was comic relief in the ninth inning, as the fans did the chop with Chas McCormick on the mound. He allowed two runs, mixing 80-mile-an-hour fastballs with a variety of eephus pitches. He pitched out of the windup the whole time and probably threw a pitch every five seconds.

The fans went wild as the Astros got an unearned run in the ninth on an Alex Bregman throwing error.

The Astros and Red Sox lock horns tomorrow at 6:10 CT. Hunter Brown goes for the series win after tonight’s humiliation.