Houston Astros Starter Makes MLB History For Wrong Reason

It was not a great outing for one of the Houston Astros' starting pitchers again as he made MLB history for all the wrong reasons.

Mar 30, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown | Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Astros are having the worst start to their year imaginable.

They've began seasons slow before, and were still able to rally to win their division and make the American League Championship Series, but this feels different.

Five starting pitchers being on the injured list doesn't help, and when two of them are the top starters in the rotation, that is going to present major problems.

Unsurprisingly, that's been the case.

The Astros called up their top pitching prospect, Spencer Arrighetti, and threw him to the wolves on Wednesday as his debut went south quickly. That was after they called up another one of their minor leaguers where similar results happened.

With Houston handing the ball to second-year player Hunter Brown on Thursday, they were hoping he'd be able to get them back on track before they returned home for a six-game homestand against the Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves.

Instead, Brown made MLB history for the wrong reason.

Astros starter Hunter Brown is the 1st pitcher in MLB history to allow 11 hits while pitching less than 1 full inning.

— Paul Casella (@Paul_CasellaMLB) April 11, 2024

As that might have suggested, things did not go well early during this game.

Brown gave up nine earned runs on those 11 hits, getting yanked out of the game before he was able to finish the first inning.

It's been a struggle for the Astros, but there really isn't too much they can do about it right now.

Justin Verlander is working his way back to a return this month, but Framber Valdez and Jose Urquidy might take a bit longer in their rehab, leaving two holes in their rotation.

Because of that, manager Joe Espada already said they plan on giving Arrighetti another shot, and even though this performance was horrendous, it would be shocking if they demoted Brown considering the lack of options they already have.