Where would this team be without Hunter Brown? That certainly isn’t a sentence I’d expected to write back in early May. Crazy how baseball works itself out sometimes, right?
But, in all seriousness, Brown’s ascension from a demotion candidate to the top of the rotation arm in the span of a few months is nothing short of impressive. Even during games when he perhaps doesn’t have his best stuff (only nine whiffs on 51 swings tonight), he pitched well enough. Against these White Sox, that translated into seven innings of one-run ball on four hits. Hey, he can’t control whether the opposing team is a contender, rebuilding, or whatever Chicago is doing.
Other than a bit of trouble in the first inning in which he allowed his only run, Brown did relatively well keeping the White Sox lineup in check. There was the occasional single followed by the runner reaching second base, although the right-hander would eventually get out of the inning without any further complications. Chicago did manage to put 17 ball in play against Brown, but it wasn’t much of an issue.
The lineup, fresh off a disappointing 16-strikeout performance on Friday, had a bounce-back game of sorts. 13 hits in total and only seven strikeouts this time around. Six hitters had at least two hits. Jeremy Peña and Jon Singleton were the only starters today not to record a hit. But it didn’t matter as multiple hitters took care of business, initiated by Jose Altuve’s two RBI in the third inning.
Jose Altuve doing Jose Altuve things#Astros pic.twitter.com/8XAMciDppb
— Space City Home Network (@SpaceCityHN) August 18, 2024
Shay Whitcomb also got the first hit of his Major League career. Victor Caratini continues to prove to be a wonderful addition to this roster. All in all, it was a good day for this lineup following a rather dreadful performance the day before. But the sooner Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker return, the better as this lineup is still rather thin once you get past the first four or so hitters.
For the bullpen, the Bryan’s — Bryan Abreu and Bryan King — shut the door on the White Sox for the eighth and ninth innings. Seven hitters, only one hit, and a lone walk, but nothing came of it. Alas, with the news of Ryan Pressly hitting the IL with a lower back strain, we’ll probably see more of King and others a bit more often. On the other hand, as much as I like having Pressly on this team, I am ready to see Abreu have more opportunities in higher-leverage situations.
With Saturday’s win, the Astros now hold a four-game lead over the Mariners for the AL West, who lost earlier in the day to the Pirates. The Rangers fall to 11 games behind Houston, as they also lost in their bout against the Twins. Quite a turnaround considering the Astros were 10 games behind Seattle in the standings only two months ago. Sometimes you never know with baseball.