RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Houston Astros' Hunter Brown delivers a pitch against the New York Mets during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray) (Noah K. Murray/Associated Press)
NEW YORK - Amid a troubling stretch for the Houston Astros rotation, an ace restored order. Fourteen games elapsed without an Astros starter finishing six innings before Hunter Brown took the mound at Citi Field on Friday. Half of those games saw their starter work 4 ⅓ innings or fewer, taxing a bullpen showing signs of strain. The rotation posted a 5.64 ERA in that span. Just two teams had a higher one.
The formula feels unsustainable for a team with playoff aspirations, but nor are solutions apparent for this team's pitching instability. Houston has three starters in which it shows trust. One, Peter Lambert, already is nearing a career-high innings total. Another, Hayden Wesneski, has not surpassed 91 pitches yet in six starts back from elbow surgery.
With both Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai - the two highest-paid starters on their roster - rested, the Astros will deploy an opener Saturday against the Mets. Bennett Sousa will draw the assignment, two days after a messy seventh inning at Yankee Stadium . Javier and Imai would ostensibly be available for bulk innings, but Imai has been on ice , appearing in three games this month.
Houston's bullpen has essentially been operating a man short as a result, magnifying the workload its regular relievers have shouldered . Steven Okert entered Friday with the third-most outings among AL relievers and AJ Blubaugh with the most relief innings in the majors. Okert, Enyel De Los Santos and Bryan Abreu were all among the 33 relievers in the league with at least 52 appearances.
Maintaining key arms for a playoff push is desirable, but the Astros' lack of cushion - a two-game lead over Texas in the AL West after their 3-1 win Friday - complicates strategic rest. So does the rotation's recent lack of reliability, forcing them to rely heavily on leverage relievers to secure wins. Getting more from that group seems critical over the final 27 games of their season.
No pitcher is better suited to provide than Brown, the 2025 Cy Young finalist whose inconsistency upon his return from a shoulder injury diminished his potential impact. Brown entered Friday with a 3.51 ERA in 14 starts, yet nearly as many had lasted fewer than five innings (four) as comprised six or more (five). Houston had not won in his four August starts, though largely due to totaling 10 runs in those games.
Friday, Brown provided both quality and length. He bulled through 6 ⅔ innings of one-run ball against the Mets, scattering five hits and striking out a season-high 10 batters. He issued one walk, avoiding an issue that has inflated pitch counts in some other outings. He exited with Houston leading and needing just seven outs from its bullpen, which it got from Abreu and Josh Hader.
"That's the Hunter that we're used to seeing," manager Joe Espada said.
Shaky feel for his four-seam fastball hounded Brown for a while, but he has harnessed the pitch better over his past two outings. He threw it in-zone 52% of the time Friday, while throwing his sinker in-zone 71% of the time. Both helped set up secondary pitches that were sharp, as he finished four strikeouts with his curveball and three others with his slider or changeup.
"I thought I had both fastballs going, I thought actually both my breaking balls were pretty good, and I was able to mix in some good changeups," Brown said. "(Catcher Yainer) Diaz called a heck of a game tonight, he was really good back there."
2026 ASTROS STATS
BATTERS AVG OBA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS E Team Totals .242 .317 4541 616 1097 197 15 179 586 451 1107 41 19 60 Alvarez .318 .435 478 89 152 28 1 36 91 93 102 1 0 2 Peña .283 .338 336 65 95 15 1 16 44 22 81 9 1 9 Correa .279 .369 122 22 34 8 0 3 16 18 26 1 0 1 Allen .264 .308 121 21 32 4 0 2 13 8 27 2 0 5 Diaz .261 .289 257 28 67 10 0 10 33 10 42 0 2 2 Paredes .260 .358 465 52 121 23 1 17 73 57 71 0 0 7 Shewmake .256 .272 78 10 20 4 0 3 9 2 13 0 0 2 Altuve .246 .310 419 60 103 17 2 14 41 38 93 4 3 5 Delgado .243 .300 37 4 9 1 0 1 4 3 7 0 0 2 Walker .231 .305 480 64 111 25 1 24 75 43 126 0 0 2 Harris .226 .286 31 4 7 0 1 0 4 2 6 2 0 0 Loperfido .216 .314 102 13 22 7 1 1 12 14 31 1 1 1 Vázquez .214 .269 220 21 47 7 0 7 25 17 48 1 0 1 Smith .213 .279 428 56 91 15 4 17 48 36 119 10 2 5 Meyers .213 .268 141 15 30 7 0 3 11 10 31 1 2 0 Dezenzo .213 .280 75 11 16 4 0 1 3 7 31 1 0 1 Trammell .207 .293 198 26 41 6 2 7 20 20 69 3 3 2 Wade .206 .330 97 13 20 5 0 2 15 18 27 0 0 0 Matthews .197 .250 208 23 41 5 1 7 22 15 71 4 4 1 Varsho .195 .258 82 7 16 3 0 3 9 7 21 1 0 0 Price .167 .231 12 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 1 Spence .162 .244 37 4 6 1 0 0 3 3 15 0 1 1 Cole .157 .189 51 4 8 1 0 3 8 1 21 0 0 1 Johnson .143 .294 14 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 Whitcomb .130 .167 23 2 3 0 0 2 5 1 11 0 0 0 Salazar .056 .227 18 0 1 0 0 0 1 3 3 0 0 0 Velázquez .000 .000 11 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 ___
PITCHERS W L ERA G GS SV IP H R ER HR BB SO Team Totals 68 67 4.63 135 135 41 1198.1 1080 658 616 177 553 1186 Meyers 0 0 0.00 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hader 4 1 0.76 36 0 20 35.1 13 3 3 1 11 48 Santa 0 1 1.17 10 0 0 15.1 8 6 2 1 6 9 VanWey 1 0 1.50 5 0 0 6 5 2 1 0 0 5 Okert 6 2 2.17 66 1 0 66.1 44 17 16 7 14 66 Blubaugh 4 2 3.17 51 0 1 82.1 62 31 29 10 34 84 Brown 4 3 3.33 15 15 0 81 61 32 30 10 44 86 Pearson 1 0 3.60 16 0 1 20 16 10 8 1 12 16 Lambert 8 7 3.66 23 23 0 128 106 54 52 13 51 125 Wesneski 4 1 3.86 6 6 0 32.2 27 14 14 2 12 28 Abreu 5 3 4.06 53 0 7 51 36 25 23 7 36 65 Teng 5 6 4.22 27 10 0 70.1 63 37 33 10 30 71 Ullola 0 0 4.50 4 0 0 6 4 3 3 2 1 9 Arrighetti 7 5 4.60 17 17 0 88 68 47 45 12 50 87 De Los Santos 2 3 4.67 58 0 5 61.2 59 36 32 8 14 57 King 2 3 4.75 51 1 6 53 57 30 28 8 19 44 Roa 0 1 5.19 7 0 0 8.2 10 5 5 1 7 6 Imai 6 4 5.32 ...
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