Hunter Brown delivered his most complete start of the season Saturday, working seven innings and allowing two hits and no walks while striking out seven, as the Houston Astros beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-1, at Rate Field to win their fifth straight game and take the series.
Brown and White Sox starter Sean Burke traded zeroes for five innings before Houston broke through in the sixth. Burke hit Cam Smith with a pitch, and Jeremy Peña reached when his chopper toward shortstop Colson Montgomery got past him and rolled into the outfield. Alvarez worked a walk on four pitches to load the bases. Isaac Paredes then lined a single into right field that got past a charging Braden Montgomery and rolled to the wall, clearing the bases and putting Houston ahead 3-0. Paredes added another RBI single in the eighth inning, finishing with three runs driven in.
Brown matched his longest outing of the season, throwing a season-high 90 pitches over seven innings. His fastball reached a season-high 98.6 mph and sat at 96.9 mph on average. After battling command issues in recent starts, Brown’s fastball returned to its usual velocity, and his control returned with it. He retired his final 12 batters in a row after Murakami’s single put a runner on in the fourth. It capped a sharp turnaround for Brown, who has issued 28 walks across his starts this season, including a career-high six last time out against Baltimore. He said afterward that he’d been “battling” his four-seam fastball.
Houston’s bullpen escaped two late threats to close it out. Bryan Abreu got two outs in the eighth before leaving runners in scoring position, and Bennett Sousa stranded them with a popout from Randal Grichuk. Sousa ran into trouble again in the ninth, allowing two singles, including one aided by an outfield error that trimmed Houston’s lead to three, before closer Josh Hader entered and struck out the final two batters to convert his 12th save of the season without a blown chance.
The victory moved Houston into second place in the AL West, two games behind Texas, as the Astros continue to gain ground. Yordan Alvarez remains atop the major-league home run leaderboard with 34, though he went hitless Saturday, snapping a 10-game hitting streak during which he had batted .486.
Houston closes out the series Sunday, with first pitch at 1:10 p.m. Central, when Ronel Blanco faces Chicago’s Erick Fedde at Rate Field.
