With the disastrous news of Yordan Alvarez's ankle injury just a week after he returned from the 60-Day Injured List, and Houston being overtaken in the AL West by the Seattle Mariners, there is increased pressure on the Astros' star players on the current roster to perform at a higher level.
Houston already has the pieces on its roster that have contributed to World Series victories in the past, like Carlos Correa, Jeremy Peña, and Framber Valdez. However, there is a new wave of Astros that are expected to put the team on their back, and one of them is ace Hunter Brown.
Hunter Brown has been one of the best starters in baseball this season
In a recent Bleacher Report article, writer Tim Kelly names Hunter Brown as one of 12 players with 'most pressure' during the remainder of the season:
"Hunter Brown did appear in seven games for the Astros during the 2022 season, and then three times in the postseason as a reliever for the World Champions. But he wasn't at the forefront of that club. Make no mistake, Brown is very much one of the core pieces for this Astros squad. With a 2.25 ERA and 190 strikeouts over 167.2 innings pitched, Brown is going to post a top-five finish in AL Cy Young Award voting."
Now that Brown has officially taken the reins as the Astros' ace, there is a lot of pressure on him to translate his regular-season success into the postseason.
Houston is entering its final 12 games of the regular season, and all 12 will be more important than the previous contest. That means that Brown will make 2-3 starts in the final two weeks. Those starts will be crucial in determining the Astros' seeding for the playoffs. It's already looking like the AL West is going to be decided by the final day of the regular season, and Hunter Brown could be the deciding factor in where the Astros end up.
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