The Houston Astros entered Thursday’s matinee affair with the homestanding Kansas City Royals at 4-9 on the season and with major injury concerns in their rotation.
Houston is currently without starters Jose Urquidy, Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander. They are relying on former top prospect Hunter Brown to help hold down the fort until at least some reinforcements come.
In no way did that happen in a 13-3 road loss to the red-hot Royals. Being swept by a team that lost 106 games last season is bad enough. Giving up 24 runs in the final two games of the three-game set is another story.
As for Brown, he made the wrong kind of MLB history in his start Thursday afternoon. The 25-year-old former first-round pick yielded nine runs on 11 hits in 0.2 innings of work. That’s impressively bad.
In the process, Brown became the first pitcher in MLB history to give up 11 hits in less than one inning of work. You read that right. MLB history.
Just to put this into perspective, the first Major League Baseball game was played all the way back in 1871. That was just six years after the American Civil War ended.
- Hunter Brown stats (Thursday): 0.2 innings, 11 hits, 9 earned runs, 1 walk, 40 pitches
The fact that Brown gave up 11 hits on 40 pitches makes this stat even that more astounding. Through three starts this season, the righty from Wayne State University has yielded 14 runs and 23 hits in just 7.2 innings of work. That doesn’t seem too good.
Sure, Houston is up against it due to the numerous amount of injuries. But you can’t perform at this level and expect to be taken seriously. That’s even true this early in the season.
As for the Royals, they are now 9-4 on the season. That represents 16% of their win total from a season ago.