With the Houston Astros closing out the series against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, the team gets a huge injury update to its top pitcher. As fans have been awaiting the injury return of Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown, it is finally coming as a date has been announced for his next start.
According to Chandler Rome of The Athletic, Brown will make his return after being on the 60-day injured list due to a shoulder injury and start on Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers.
“Hunter Brown will make his return to the Astros rotation on Tuesday night at Daikin Park against Framber Valdez and the Detroit Tigers,” Rome wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
While it has been an overall disappointing season for the Astros, the team has played better recently, with even general manager Dana Brown saying last Monday that Brown's coming back will “stabilize the rotation,” per MLB.com.
Astros' Dana Brown speaks highly of Hunter Brown
There's no denying that Brown's injury hurt the Astros earlier in the season, especially since he was coming off a season pitching a 2.43 ERA with 206 strikeouts and a 12-9 record. Houston's general manager would speak on the impact the ace is going to bring to the team:
“Look, he was third in Cy Young Award voting last year, and we all know how important Hunter Brown is to this team. And at the end of the day, getting him back into our rotation will stabilize the rotation, stabilize the bullpen, because we won't have to use as many guys out of the ‘pen. Right now, we're working our ‘pen pretty hard. We're not overworking them, but we're working them pretty hard.
“And so if we could pull back a little bit — we're still not even halfway through the season, and we're grinding our ‘pen a little bit. Hunter Brown getting back to the rotation will help to stabilize the rotation, and firm up the bullpen, and pull back on some of those guys' innings.”
At any rate, it remains to be seen how Brown's start on Tuesday will go against the Tigers.
