Surging Brown has 'turned a corner' for Astros

CHICAGO -- The Astros entered Wednesday night once again fielding a lineup without Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. They also did so against hard-throwing White Sox ace Garrett Crochet, essentially ensuring righty Hunter Brown had a minimal margin for error to work against.

But as he continues to show throughout his remarkable in-season turnaround, going toe-to-toe with an opponent’s best hurler is hardly a challenge for Brown.

One start removed from outdueling Cy Young candidate Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, Brown held Chicago to just one run across six innings, turning in his sixth straight quality start in the Astros’ 4-1 win at Guaranteed Rate Field.

"He has really turned a corner,” manager Joe Espada said. “He’s mature. Even his presence on the mound, the confidence to throw any pitch any time in the count. Any time he’s ahead, he’s competitive. His stuff, it just keeps getting better and better every time he’s out there."

It’s certainly not an outcome one would’ve expected back in April, when the 25-year-old scuffled through six wildly inconsistent starts and at one point saw his ERA balloon to 16.43. For an Astros rotation that has spent the entire season having its depth tested by injuries, Brown’s struggles were hardly helping matters.

But the righty is clearly not the same pitcher who entered May with a 9.78 ERA, a point he's hammered home in nearly every outing since.

Wednesday night was the latest example, though it certainly didn’t seem that way early on. Despite a replay challenge reversing what was initially called as a hit-by-pitch on the first batter he faced, Brown still endured a 27-pitch first inning. But after escaping the frame unscathed, he proceeded to settle back in, never topping 14 pitches in any of the following five innings.

"All these big league hitters, they’re going to put up good at-bats,” Brown said afterward while wearing the Astros’ custom Pitcher of the Game championship belt. "Sometimes you find yourself throwing a little bit more pitches than you’d like. I got the weak contact I was looking for. Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn’t. Today I was able to limit the damage and put us in a good spot."

Brown did so despite a fourth-inning solo shot from Andrew Benintendi snapping his 16-inning scoreless streak, the longest such stretch by an Astros pitcher this season. The 25-year-old was the first Houston starter to throw at least 16 consecutive scoreless innings in a single season since Cristian Javier threw 25 1/3 straight from Sept. 7 through Oct. 1, 2022.

Brown’s stretch was also the second-longest active scoreless streak in the Majors, falling behind only Detroit righty Jack Flaherty, who’s put up zeros in 16 2/3 straight frames since May 30.

“He’s outstanding,” said catcher César Salazar, who provided two RBI singles after Victor Caratini departed with left leg discomfort. “He has a plan, he executes his plan and he throws every pitch with intent and conviction. That makes him such a good pitcher.”

Brown further backed that up in the fifth, facing his only true jam of the night. After Korey Lee and Tommy Pham both singled to put runners at the corners with one out, the Astros’ 2-1 lead suddenly looked to be on shaky ground. Three pitches later, the crisis was averted, as Brown got Gavin Sheets to hit into an inning-ending double play.

"He was commanding the zone,” Lee said. “Throwing pitches that he needed to, executing when he needed to. He has that sinker now that kind of keeps you on your toes. He had a good outing overall."

That could effectively describe almost all of Brown’s outings following his rocky opening month to the season. Since April 30, he’s allowed more than two earned runs just twice in nine games (eight starts). His ERA has plummeted all the way down to 4.72. During his stretch of quality starts, he’s given up just seven earned runs across a combined 37 innings (1.70 ERA).

It’s the kind of sustained success Houston desperately needs as it tries to make up ground in the AL West standings with a thin rotation. And when it comes to what’s helped Brown continue to get better with each outing, the answer is pretty simple.

"Honestly, I wish I could pinpoint it to something,” Brown said. “Just putting the work in between outings and knowing that eventually the results are going to come. Just executing my pitches and feeling confident. That, I think, can go a long way."

For further proof of that, just look at everything Brown has done since April.