The Houston Astros are heading home after a rough two-game sweep by the Chicago White Sox in the AL Wild Card round, and the loss stings even more because it came after Houston finished 81-81, won the AL West, and posted the worst playoff record in Major League Baseball history.
Still, one bad night from Hunter Brown should not be the thing that defines this exit.
Houston handed the ball to its best starter in the Game 2 elimination game, trusting the same arm that helped steady a rotation that had been shaken by injuries and inconsistency. Brown wasn’t healthy for the full season, but once he got back on the mound in June, he became a major reason the Astros got to October in the first place.
That’s what makes the playoff collapse so jarring. Brown barely made it out of the first inning against Chicago, giving up five hits, four runs - three earned - and one walk while striking out two. The outing left him with a 40.50 ERA for the game, the worst playoff performance of his career.
Brown also made no secret of his frustration after falling short of the standard expected of him.
The larger picture matters here, though. Brown made his season debut in March, returned in June, and went on to make 20 regular-season starts. He finished with a 3.19 ERA across 107.1 innings, numbers that reinforced how quickly he has grown into one of the Astros’ most important starters.
His playoff track record also suggests this one game is the exception, not the rule. In his postseason career, Brown has a 3.18 ERA in nine games, with two starts. In his 2025 playoff start, he worked 5.2 innings, allowed two hits, and gave up one run on a homer.
There’s room to question how firm that postseason résumé really is, since Brown has been more of a coin flip in that setting than a sure thing. But the Astros do not have a clearer answer waiting in the rotation unless Peter Lambert or Cristian Javier take a significant step forward.
So while the organization and its fans were let down by the way this ended, Brown’s outing looks more like a bad outlier than a reason to point fingers. His career 3.44 ERA and third-place finish in 2025 AL Cy Young voting say plenty about what he has become. Houston’s next move should be about giving him more support on the mound, not treating him like the reason the season unraveled.
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