CHICAGO -- Despite an injury-plagued 2026 that has limited right-hander Hunter Brown to a 4.05 ERA in 40 innings entering Saturday’s contest against the White Sox at Rate Field, Astros manager Joe Espada hadn’t lost faith in his ace.
“He’s shown the velo and the shapes of his pitches are good -- getting ahead and executing his pitches,” Espada said before Saturday’s game. “I think he agrees that he could be better, but it’s going to click for him. This guy’s one of the best pitchers in the game. Hopefully, we see that version today.”
Maybe Espada had a peek into the future. Maybe the manager had a hunch. Or maybe Brown was just due.
Whatever it was, the Astros and Brown will gladly take his best performance of the year, where he tossed seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in the Astros’ 4-1 win over the White Sox on Saturday. It was the first time Brown had pitched into the seventh this season, a surprising fact given he logged 185 1/3 innings in 2025, when he finished third in AL Cy Young Award voting.
But it wasn’t just the fact that Brown pitched deep into the game -- it was the way he did it.
Brown’s velocity was up across the board; his average four-seam fastball and sinker speeds were up about 1 mph, his changeup was up 1.2 mph and his knuckle curve and slider were up about 2 mph.
Then, there was the fact that he only improved as the game wore on. All-Star Munetaka Murakami led the bottom of the fourth inning off with a single, a potential land mine for Brown. But the right-hander struck out the next three hitters on 12 pitches, the beginning of a run of 12 straight batters retired by Brown.
The Astros’ lineup eventually was able to get to White Sox starter Sean Burke to buoy Brown. Isaac Paredes singled with the bases loaded in the sixth, and the ball went past right fielder Braden Montgomery to score all three runs. Paredes added another RBI single in the eighth.