Houston right-hander Hunter Brown will attempt to continue his career-long dominance of a team he might have trouble recognizing when the visiting Astros seek to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the hot-hitting Oakland Athletics on Wednesday afternoon.
One night after riding pitching to a 4-0 win over Houston, the A's smacked five home runs in an 8-2 romp during the Tuesday rematch.
Oakland has hit 10 homers in five games since the All-Star break, a stretch in which they have gone 4-1 against the Los Angeles Angels and the Astros, outscoring their American League West rivals by a total of 38-15. The A's also have mixed in 14 doubles and two triples.
The poster boy for the surge has been right fielder Lawrence Butler, who got the Tuesday win off to a thrilling start when he threw out Alex Bregman at the plate trying to score on a first-inning fly ball.
Batting in the leadoff spot, Butler subsequently clubbed a triple, his 10th homer and a double. He's now 12-for-19 since the All-Star break after smacking three homers at Philadelphia in the last game before the time off.
"This kid just has momentum right now. He's playing great baseball," A's manager Mark Kotsay said. "This is the type of baseball, when we brought him up last year, I thought he was capable of playing. Now you're starting to see it every day, which is awesome."
Brown (8-6, 4.14 ERA) might have seen it from the dugout the past two nights, but he has never experienced it while on the mound. Brown faced Butler twice last September, striking him out and retiring him on a grounder to third.
In fact, the right-hander has gone head-to-head with Butler, Shea Langeliers and Zack Gelof -- all of whom homered Tuesday -- a total of 12 times without allowing a hit, striking them out on seven occasions. Brown is 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA in four career starts against the A's, during which he has struck out 30 in 24 innings.
The 25-year-old has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball in his last eight starts, going 7-1 with a 1.84 ERA. He held five of those opponents without a run, including the Seattle Mariners over six innings in the Astros' return from the All-Star break on Friday.
That win gave the Astros a share of first place in the AL West for the first time this season. They enter play on Wednesday in a virtual tie with the Mariners for the top spot.
"We're just being us, being the Houston Astros," Brown said of the first-place status. "This clubhouse is loaded with talent on the offensive side, defense, pitching and everything about it. Just playing our brand of baseball and feeling good about it."
Brown's mound opponent on Wednesday will be left-hander JP Sears (7-7, 4.49), who already has more wins than any Oakland pitcher since Cole Irvin went 9-13 in 2022. The 28-year-old is unbeaten in his past four starts, going 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA.
Sears didn't get a decision in a May 14 start at Houston, limiting the Astros to one run (on a homer by Bregman) and five hits in five innings. He's gone 2-1 with a 3.41 ERA in six games (five starts) against Houston in his career.
Bregman has owned the matchup with Sears, going 5-for-14 (.357) with two homers.
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