Hunter Brown Puts Himself in Houston Astros' History Books with Gem vs. Toronto Blue Jays

The Houston Astros beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-0 on Monday night at Daikin Park, getting back to .500 at 11-11. The Blue Jays have lost three straight all of a sudden and are sitting at 12-11.

Jose Altuve went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Yordan Alvarez also added an RBI, but the real story was the pitching of right-hander Hunter Brown.

Brown went 7.0 innings, giving up no runs on just two hits. He walked one and struck out nine in moving to 3-1 on the year. He's now carrying a 1.16 ERA, which puts him in some special team history of the last 30 years.

Per @JayHayKid of Underdog Fantasy on social media:

Hunter Brown’s 1.16 ERA is the 5th-lowest by an Astros pitcher through the first 5 starts of a season in the Wild Card Era, behind Dallas Keuchel (0.73, 2015), Roger Clemens (1.03, 2005) and Justin Verlander (1.06, 2017 and 1.10, 2018).

Brown pairs with lefty Framber Valdez to make one of the top duos in baseball. The 26-year-old is a former fifth-round pick of the Astros out of Wayne State. He made his major league debut in 2022 and owns a lifetime 27-23 record and a 3.82 ERA.

The two teams will play again on Tuesday night with first pitch coming at 8:10 p.m. ET. Veteran righty Chris Bassitt takes the mound for Toronto against right-hander Ronel Blanco.

Bassitt is an impressive 2-0 with a sterling 0.77 ERA while Blanco is 1-2 with a 6.48.