Anxious Astros fans hope familiar flaw doesn't haunt Hunter Brown in 2026

By and large, it's difficult to find a ton of fault with Hunter Brown's performance on Opening Day. The Houston Astros ace toed the rubber and put up zeroes. Brown allowed just four hits and struck out nine batters.

But there was a problem with Brown's outing on Thursday — two, in fact. First, he walked four batters. That's a problem that plagued Brown last season. In 2025, he walked three or more batters on 10 different occasions. That needs to change as he moves forward into 2026.

Perhaps more alarming, however, is that fact that Brown was lifted before completing the fifth inning. Not necessarily because he was getting lit up by the opposition, but he had already thrown 102 pitches. That's not going to work over the long haul.

Astros starter Hunter Brown enjoyed a fruitful, but inefficient Opening Day start

If Brown hadn't struggled with command issues in 2025, his four free passes could be chalked up to Opening Day jitters or not getting in enough work during spring training. As it is, he made four Grapefruit League starts in Florida, threw a total of 216 pitches, and struck out 20 batters. During his final spring outing, however, he walked three batters.

Brown's Baseball Savant is dripping with red, but there's one area of concern, and that's the walks. In 2025, he walked a modest 7.8% of the batters he faced, which ranked right in the middle of the league. This will be something to monitor during Brown's next start, which should come next week against the Boston Red Sox.

Thankfully, the Astros have a bevy of long relievers in the bullpen at the moment. AJ Blubaugh came on in relief of Brown, and while he surrendered a home run to three-time MVP Mike Trout, that's the only complaint any fan should have following his 2⅓ innings of work on Opening Day against the Los Angeles Angels.

Brown was not the reason the Astros lost on Opening Day to the Angels — Houston's bats recorded just three hits — but being pulled before even qualifying for a quality start, despite throwing over 100 pitches, isn't something manager Joe Espada will want to see going forward.

Of Brown's 102 pitches, only 59 landed for strikes. That's less than 60%, and will almost always lead to ant early-exit for Houston's ace.