After dropping Game 1 of their American League wild-card series to the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night at Daikin Park, the Houston Astros were facing elimination in Game 2 on Wednesday. Manager Joe Espada was confident going into the game and rightfully so. He had his ace, Hunter Brown , lined up to extend the season by at least one more game.
However, things didn't go as planned. The right-hander didn't even get out of the first inning after allowing four runs in what turned into a 7-3 loss that ended the season for the American League West Division champs. After the season-ending loss, Brown summed up his performance in what will be a long offseason for him and his teammates.
Houston Astros pitcher Hunter Brown Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
In the postseason, starts generally don't go as long as they do in the regular season. However, what happened to Brown was nothing short of disappointing and a complete nightmare. He allowed five hits, four runs, three earned runs, one walk and two strikeouts. His defense didn't help him out, with an error and a misplayed fly ball.
"I feel like everything that could have went poorly did and I didn't overcome the whole inning, really," Brown said, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com . "I felt like, looking back, it's hard to say I don't take anything back, but I feel like pitches that I threw I was confident and I threw them to the best of my ability. Just didn't come out on the right end of it. Unfortunately, that's the way it went, and they were able to slap a crooked number up there on the board."
It was a struggle for Brown from the first pitch. He didn't record his first out until his 16th pitch and his second out on his 30th. Both were strikeouts. Houston clawed back to 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning before Chicago put the game and series away with three runs in the top of the sixth inning.
The fact that Brown and the Astros were even in the position they were was surprising, given they finished the regular season 81-81. They took advantage of a weak AL West that nobody wanted to take control of, separate from the rest of the division. Houston didn't even do that, edging out the Texas Rangers on the final day of the regular season.
It's going to be a long offseason in Houston with a lot of changes likely coming from the front office all the way down to the roster. They fell well short of their goal after being swept by the White Sox and Brown couldn't make it through the first inning. That sums up how most of 2026 went and was a rather fitting ending when all was said and done.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/astros/onsi as Astros' Hunter Brown Drops Blunt Quote About Frustrating Start Against White Sox .
