CLEVELAND -- Just two days after he had a pair of base hits to help Triple-A Sugar Land clinch the Pacific Coast League championship -- and participated in the requisite champagne celebration that followed -- Astros¡¯ No. 5 prospect Zach Dezenzo on Friday made his case to be on Houston¡¯s postseason roster.

Dezenzo, who grew up in nearby Alliance, Ohio, went 2-for-5 with his second career home run while starting at designated hitter in the Astros¡¯ 5-2 win over the American League Central Division champion Guardians at Progressive Field.

¡°I feel everywhere I go, there¡¯s winning all around me and the cultures are amazing,¡± Dezenzo said. ¡°I¡¯m blessed to be a part of an amazing organization top to bottom, and I think we do a lot of things really well over here.¡±

After Victor Caratini homered to right field with one out in the fifth inning off Eli Morgan, Dezenzo uncorked a Statcast-projected 446-foot homer to center field that made it 5-0. With Yordan Alvarez nursing a sore knee, there could be a spot on the Astros¡¯ American League Wild Card roster up for grabs.

¡°That ball hit to center, that was a nice, short compact swing,¡± Astros manager Joe Espada said. ¡°I haven't seen balls hit that far here -- straight center. He looked really good. We brought him up there just to see some of those adjustments he¡¯s made and that was a pretty good first impression.¡±

In his first stint with the Astros, Dezenzo went 11-for-52 (.212) over 17 games in his Major League debut, which included a home run over the Green Monster in Boston on Aug. 10, after which his teammates gave him the silent treatment. On Friday, he had the two hardest-hit balls of the game: 108.6 mph on his homer and 112.2 mph on his seventh-inning single.

Dezenzo said he¡¯s working to get in better spots with his swing and finding consistency in his load, while sticking to his approach and not giving in to what pitchers are trying to get him to do.

¡°Hitting a home run here, just a lot of nostalgia and really, really cool for me,¡± said Dezenzo, who wore No. 24 while growing up in honor of former Cleveland slugger and current White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore.

Blanco, Arrighetti possible bullpen weapons
The Astros are likely to go with Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and Yusei Kikuchi as their starters in next week¡¯s best-of-three AL Wild Card Series. That would bump Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti to the bullpen, and both showed Friday they can be huge weapons.

Blanco allowed one hit in five scoreless innings in his final start of the regular season, earning his 13th win. He finished his first season as a starter with a 2.80 ERA in 167 1/3 innings, striking out 166 batters. Houston went 20-9 in games started by Blanco.

¡°I¡¯m so proud of him and how hard he¡¯s worked,¡± Espada said. ¡°You could make a case that he¡¯s probably one of our best starters. He has helped us get to this point through injuries. He was consistent, and today he was really good. Spencer also threw the ball really well. He came out of the bullpen throwing the ball firm. His breaking pitches were pretty good. Nice overall job on our pitching.¡±

Arrighetti took over for Blanco to start the sixth and threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out four batters and walking three with a velocity bump on all his pitches. He was ejected for yelling towards home-plate umpire Mark Wegner after Espada had pulled him from the game in the eighth. Arrighetti is ready to embrace a bullpen role in October.

¡°I did it a little bit in college my freshman year and it felt similar, felt familiar a little bit,¡± Arrighetti said. ¡°I think I was a little bit rusty. I think I¡¯ll be able to find a little bit better routine the next time I do it, and obviously it¡¯s really exciting. I get a lot of adrenaline that way. I was a little amped coming into the game, just kind of on edge. It feels like we¡¯re getting close to the playoffs. It was a big game for us.¡±

Having Blanco and Arrighetti gives Espada a pair of length bullpen options that he didn¡¯t have in the regular season.

¡°Anything can happen in those games if you can have some length and something happens to one of our starters early in the game and you have those guys available and they can give you three, four good innings. That¡¯s what you need,¡± Espada said. ¡°Spencer kind of showcased that today.¡±