{"id":654471,"date":"2026-03-31T13:43:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/654471\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:43:32","slug":"astros-turn-to-rhp-hunter-brown-and-his-history-of-success-against-red-sox-field-level-media-professional-sports-content-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/654471\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros turn to RHP Hunter Brown and his history of success against Red Sox – Field Level Media – Professional sports content solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Astros had to slug their way past the Los Angeles Angels in the final two contests of their season-opening four-game series, setting the stage for veteran right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. to deliver a lengthy start against the Boston Red Sox and provide the bullpen a bit of a breather.<\/p>\n

McCullers did exactly what was needed, hurling seven strong innings to lead the Astros to an 8-1 victory in the opener of a three-game home series that continues on Tuesday. Houston needed only two pitchers on Monday to secure the triumph, with reliever Ryan Weiss covering the final two frames of the Astros\u2019 third straight win.<\/p>\n

Astros manager Joe Espada had an inkling that his starter was up to snuff when McCullers struck out Roman Anthony and Trevor Story to open the game. McCullers faced the minimum through six and, when he ran into a spot of trouble in the seventh, Espada let him finish the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe picked us up big time,\u201d Espada said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew exactly what he needed to do, which makes it even harder to do. The expectations are I need to pick the teammates up. And then he does it against that lineup. It just tells you it\u2019s not his first rodeo. He\u2019s been in that spot before. The fact that he delivered and picked us up put us in a much better spot for (Tuesday).\u201d<\/p>\n

Right-hander Hunter Brown (0-0, 0.00 ERA) has the starting assignment for Houston on Tuesday. He worked 4 2\/3 scoreless innings against the Angels but did not factor into the decision of a 3-0 loss last Thursday after he allowed four hits and four walks with nine strikeouts. Brown recorded eight scoreless starts last season.<\/p>\n

Brown is 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA across three career starts against the Red Sox. He faced Boston twice in 2025 and allowed two runs on 10 hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts in 13 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Brayan Bello (11-9, 3.35 ERA in 2025) is the scheduled starter for the Red Sox on Tuesday. He logged a career-high 166 2\/3 innings last season but labored down the stretch and dropped his last three decisions while allowing nine earned runs across 14 innings. During one stretch in 2025, Bello recorded a decision in 13 consecutive starts, going 8-5 with a 2.49 ERA.<\/p>\n

Bello is 1-1 with a 2.19 ERA in three career appearances (two starts) against the Astros. He faced Houston in consecutive starts in late August 2023, splitting the decisions after allowing four runs (three earned) on 13 hits and five walks with six strikeouts across 11 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

After scratching across just 10 runs while dropping a three-game series to the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend, the Red Sox mustered only six baserunners against the Astros on Monday.<\/p>\n

The slow start offensively hasn\u2019t presented any cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I think we\u2019re in a pretty good spot,\u201d Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re a pretty positive group. I feel like nobody has really been down on themselves, and we\u2019re very talkative. I feel like we\u2019ve been talking to each other about what we\u2019ve seen on the mound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Astros had to slug their way past the Los Angeles Angels in the final two contests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-654471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-red-sox","14":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116324088717691408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}