Astros' Mike Burrows Facing Biggest Start of Season Against Royals

When the Houston Astros acquired Mike Burrows from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the offseason, general manager Dana Brown was looking to build a rotation with Framber Valdez leaving in free agency. The deal to acquire Burrows happened long before Valdez ended up signing with the Detroit Tigers.

As for Burrows, Brown handed over prospects Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito to the Tampa Bay Rays, who sent second baseman Brandon Lowe, outfielder Jake Mangum, and left-handed pitcher Mason Montgomery to the Pirates as part of the three-team deal.

At the time of the deal, it was an understandable one for Houston. Brown was good for Pittsburgh last season, with a 3.93 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP in 96 innings. However, it's safe to say that things haven't been nearly as good with the Astros.

With that said, Burrows is going to start Houston's second game of their three-game weekend series against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night and it is a rather big start for the right-hander.

Mike Burrows Faces Important Start Against Royals

Quite frankly, Burrows has just not been good this season. He enters his start against the Royals with a 3-8 record and a 5.77 ERA. This will be his 14th start of the season for manager Joe Espada and after producing a 1.5 WAR last season with the Pirates, he's got a -0.6 WAR to date with Houston. In 73.1 innings, he ahs 60 strikeouts and 47 earned runs allowed already. He allowed just 42 last season for the Pirates in 23 appearances.

Burrows will be making his third start in June and the first two have not been good. In 10 innings combined, he allowed nine earned runs and 16 hits in losses to the Athletics and Pirates. He has an 8.10 ERA in June and will be looking to turn things around.

Houston has been hit hard with injuries this season to their rotation. It started on their first road trip of the season back in April and they are still looking to get healthy. Brown was someone who has stayed healthy for Espada, but he just hasn't pitched well enough and could be looking at a demotion to Triple-A when everyone is healthy.

The Astros scored nine first-inning runs on Friday night, but Tatsuya Imai managed to just get two outs in the bottom of the first, where Houston allowed five runs. They held on to win the game, 10-8, but Espada had to go deeper into his bullpen than he wanted. That puts more pressure on Burrows on Saturday night to not only pitch for his spot in the rotation, but save the bullpen.

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