Hunter Brown’s Rebound Continues, Astros Blank Tigers 4-0

The big news of the day was obviously the release of José Abreu, who produced, rather cost, the Astros about two wins during his 176 games with the club. But it took an extreme downturn in production to reach that point. I mean, that is as steep of a dropoff as I can recall for a player with Abreu’s track record.

Jim Crane will now have to eat the remainder of Abreu’s three-year, $58.5 million contract he signed before the 2023 season. But it was a necessary step for the Astros to hopefully field its best team for the remainder of the season.

With Abreu gone and a lefty in Tarik Skubal on the mound, Joe Espada decided to turn to Mauricio Dubón at first base instead of Jon Singleton, although the latter has traditionally hit lefties better than right-handers for his career. While normally not a first baseman, Dubón has been above-average at the plate this season, slashing .301/.327/.404 with a 109 wRC+ entering Friday’s opener against the Tigers. While his power has regressed compared to 2023, he has nearly halved his strikeout rate with nearly the same BABIP as last season. Of course, BABIP takes around 820 balls in play before it starts to stabilize, but you get the point. But on Friday, it was Dubón’s power that provided some much-needed cushion for the Astros.

That sixth inning was the turning point for Houston. Hunter Brown and Skubal went back and forth, with both pitchers shutting out both lineups through the first five innings. It felt like a game in which the first pitcher to blink would cost their team the game. Thankfully for Brown and the Astros, it was Skubal who blinked first. Jose Altuve’s double to lead off the inning got the fun started and he was promptly driven in by Alex Bregman’s RBI triple. Yordan Alvarez’s sacrifice fly would make it a quick 2-0 lead. While Jeremy Peña would ground out, Yainer Díaz kept the inning alive with a single to left. That is when Dubón’s two-run dinger finally gave the Astros a bit more breathing room.

By the way, Brown never blinked in this game, throwing seven scoreless innings while striking out nine Tigers, allowing just five hits and no walks. Considering how the right-hander’s season started, his recent turnaround — a 2.58 ERA in his last 45 ¹⁄₃ innings — has been well-timed with Cristian Javier and José Urquidy lost for the season due to elbow injuries. A sinker has been critical to Brown’s resurgence and he threw it to great effect again. Adding it to his repertoire has aided the other pitches in his arsenal and emphasizes an underrated aspect of his game: The ability to generate ground ball outs.

With a four-run lead, the Astros decided to not take any chances, using Bryan Abreu in the eighth inning followed by Josh Hader in the ninth. The two would throw a combined two scoreless innings to finish off Detroit in a much-needed win following a disappointing end to their West Coast trip earlier in the week. While there are still issues to figure out, the Astros took a step in the right direction with its roster and on the field.