Hunter Brown endures a tough-luck loss to the Texas Rangers.
Eight innings of three-hit ball wasn’t enough for Hunter Brown to taste victory on Thursday night. Brown struck out nine and walked zero, while actually lowering his ERA to an AL-second 1.43 but dropping to 6-2. Brown placed 65-of-91 pitches over the plate and gets credit for a complete game (and a Quality Start) despite the loss. Brown’s 56 2⁄3 innings thus far is tied for second most in the major leagues (Zach Wheeler leads with 58).
With 28,108 on hand at Globe Life Field, the game took only a minute over two hours, the second shortest game of the season for Houston. Victor Caratini hit a single and a double to lead Houston’s offense. Overall, the team generated just five hits in total. In addition to Caratini’s output, Jeremy Peña, Yainer Díaz and Zach Dezenzo also collected singles. Don’t look now, but Peña is hitting an AL-seventh .313 with an .833 OPS.
Brown earned 22.5 WPA for the game, easily leading the Astros. He even had a perfect game rolling into the fifth inning. Caratini was the only other player on the team with a positive mark, at 4.6 percent. Jacob deGrom earned the win, striking out seven and allowing five hits over eight shutout innings. He walked one while placing 69-of-96 pitches in the black.
Jake Burger (4) provided all the offense for the Rangers in the contest, with a sixth-inning solo home run off Brown.
Tomorrow they’ll play again, same time, but on Apple TV