Arrange multiple plots and keep the x-axis label flush with with axis

Question

I am arranging multiple plot using the patchwork package. One of the plots has the text arranged vertically, which pushes the x-axis label down (as it should), but when I combine with a second plot, the x-axis labels in both plots are moved down. I would like to keep the x-axis label of the second plot in its original position. Easier to explain with an example:

library(ggplot2)
library(patchwork)

# Toy data
mtcars2 <- mtcars[1:5, ]
mtcars2$mod <- row.names(mtcars2)


# make 2 plots
p1 <- ggplot(mtcars2, aes(mod, mpg)) +
  geom_col() +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90, vjust = 0, hjust = 1))

p2 <- ggplot(mtcars2, aes(hp, disp)) +
  geom_point()

# arrange plots next to each other
p1 + p2

But I want:

Is this possible? I'm not tied to patchwork and I tried gridExtra::grid.arrange() but that resized the plots instead.

Answer 1

Using library(cowplot), x axis of p2 will go down, not like your example, but i wish it help you. If you need to let location of x - axis in same position, please let me know.

Additional note from @phalteman

By adding , align = "h", axis = "b" in plot_grid, it really becomes what you wanted!!

library(cowplot)
mtcars2 <- mtcars[1:5, ]
mtcars2$mod <- row.names(mtcars2)


# make 2 plots
p1 <- ggplot(mtcars2, aes(mod, mpg)) +
  geom_col() +
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90, vjust = 0, hjust = 1))

p2 <- ggplot(mtcars2, aes(hp, disp)) +
  geom_point()

# arrange plots next to each other

plot_grid(p1, p2, align = "h", axis = "b") #Thanks to @phalteman