Hunter Brown recorded his 14th quality start while matching his single-season high for victories to lead the Houston Astros to a 6-1 win over the visiting Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
Brown (11-7) logged seven innings for only the second time this season and allowed one run on four hits and two walks with six strikeouts. After encountering two-out trouble that cost him a run in the first inning, Brown blanked the White Sox from there.
Chicago managed three consecutive two-out baserunners in the first, starting with a walk to Andrew Benintendi and consecutive singles by Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets for a 1-0 lead. Brown ended the inning by striking out Lenyn Sosa.
Brown faced just one batter over the minimum following the first inning. He retired the White Sox in order in the second, fifth and seventh innings, benefitted from an inning-ending double play on a line drive to shortstop Jeremy Pena in the fourth, and faced three batters in the sixth when Luis Robert Jr. hit a leadoff single but was erased attempting to steal second base.
Brown threw 69 of his 102 pitches for strikes and relied on a five-pitch mix that featured an even distribution of four-seam fastballs (25 pitches), sinkers (24) and cutters (23). He recorded nine swings and misses.
The Astros erased their one-run deficit with three runs in the bottom of the third. In his major league debut, third baseman Shay Whitcomb went 2-for-3, including a one-out double. He eventually scored on Jose Altuve’s two-run single to center for a 2-1 lead.
Altuve then went to second on a wild pitch from White Sox right-hander Chris Flexen (2-12) before swiping third base on the next pitch. Yordan Alvarez scored him when he dumped an RBI single into shallow left field.
Houston, which won for the ninth time in 10 games, tacked on another run against Flexen in the fourth when Mauricio Dubon hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Victor Caratini.
Flexen allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk with one strikeout over four innings and dropped to 0-9 over his last 18 starts, with the White Sox losing each game.