CHICAGO -- Hunter Brown’s 2026 season has been interrupted enough that the numbers entering Saturday didn’t look like the ace the Astros believe they have. He came into the game with a 4.05 ERA in 40 innings, but Joe Espada wasn’t backing off his starter.
“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.”
Brown gave Houston exactly that in a 4-1 win over the White Sox at Rate Field, turning in his sharpest outing of the year. He worked seven scoreless innings, struck out seven and reached the seventh for the first time this season. That stood out even more because Brown logged 185 1/3 innings in 2025, when he finished third in AL Cy Young Award voting.
The stuff looked livelier from the start. Brown’s average four-seam fastball and sinker were both up about 1 mph, his changeup gained 1.2 mph and both his knuckle curve and slider were up about 2 mph.
He also got stronger as the day went on. All-Star Munetaka Murakami opened the bottom of the fourth with a single, but Brown answered by striking out the next three hitters on 12 pitches. That started a stretch in which he retired 12 straight batters.
Houston’s offense gave him room to breathe against White Sox starter Sean Burke. Isaac Paredes broke the game open in the sixth with a bases-loaded single that skipped past right fielder Braden Montgomery and cleared the bases for three runs. Paredes later added another RBI single in the eighth.
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For Houston, Penas name surfacing in that kind of conversation is the part worth noting. He remains under club control for several more years, which makes him the sort of player contenders do not pry loose easily, and any serious pursuit would figure to come with a steep price. Even so, the fact that Boston is circling a player with Penas profile is another reminder that the deadline market can get aggressive fast when a team decides it wants impact, not just depth. [Read more 🡒]