DENVER \u2014 Imaging on Houston Astros ace Hunter Brown\u2019s injured right shoulder revealed a Grade 2 muscle strain, a diagnosis general manager Dana Brown described as \u201cgood news.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would characterize that as positive \u2014 that it was strictly muscle and no issues with any of the bones or structures that you cringe to hear about,\u201d Dana Brown said Tuesday. \u201cThe fact that it\u2019s muscular, it\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither Dana Brown nor manager Joe Espada specified which muscle is strained or offered a concrete timetable for a possible return. Grade 2 strains do involve partial muscle tears, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Espada said the righty will not throw for at least two weeks, after which he will be re-evaluated to determine the next steps in his recovery.<\/p>\n
Hunter Brown, who is on the injured list for the first time in his major-league career, felt discomfort during a throwing session last week. He traveled back to Houston last weekend to be evaluated by team doctors. Espada said he spoke with Brown on Tuesday afternoon and that he \u201csounded well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that it\u2019s muscular and there\u2019s no damage to anything in there, it\u2019s good news,\u201d Espada said. \u201cBut the fact that we\u2019re going to miss him for a bit just sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espada said Brown did not complain of any discomfort before he \u201cdidn\u2019t feel right\u201d while playing a game of catch last week. Brown made his first two starts of the season without any issues, though his workload during both outings now could merit more scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Brown threw 102 pitches during his first start against the Los Angeles Angels \u2014 more than any Opening Day starter in the sport. Asked Tuesday whether he was OK with such a heavy workload, Dana Brown devoted much of his answer to spring training outings he found surprising.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just found it fascinating that he was 96-98 (mph) in spring training,\u201d said Dana Brown, who expressed skepticism this winter about any of the organization\u2019s pitchers participating in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
None of them did, but a league source indicated that Team USA inquired about Hunter Brown\u2019s availability. He remained in spring training with the Astros.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have liked to see a little slower buildup,\u201d Dana Brown said. \u201cHe was fired up. I would attribute it more to maybe throwing too hard too soon. That\u2019s always a concern. You don\u2019t want guys gunning it the first few weeks of them getting built up. He was literally 97-98 (mph) often in all of his games that he pitched. I\u2019d have liked to see him dial it back \u2014 maybe 95-96, touching, feeling a little bit. That\u2019s the only thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown later said, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s one thing you can point to,\u201d while reminding two reporters that Hunter Brown \u201ccame out and actually pitched better in his second start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunter Brown threw six innings of one-run ball against the Boston Red Sox. He did so on four days of rest, which he did only five times last season. The team yanked Brown after six innings and 78 pitches, in part due to his inflated workload on Opening Day.<\/p>\n
Brown threw a career-high 185 1\/3 innings last season en route to a third-place finish in American League Cy Young Award voting.<\/p>\n
This year, much of Houston\u2019s postseason hopes hinged on Brown\u2019s assuming the mantle as the club\u2019s unquestioned ace following Framber Valdez\u2019s departure to the Detroit Tigers. Instead, the Astros must adjust without him for an indefinite period. The team added six pitchers this winter \u2014 four of whom are starters \u2014 in preparation for Valdez\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n
Still, Houston\u2019s rotation awoke Tuesday with a 5.06 ERA \u2014 the fifth highest in the sport \u2014 and a league-leading 33 walks across 53 1\/3 innings. Without Brown, pressure will shift to Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr. and Tatsuya Imai \u2014 three men making a combined $47.8 million this season \u2014 to deliver for the duration of his absence.<\/p>\n
Even without Brown, the Astros will still deploy a six-man rotation following Thursday\u2019s off day. In all likelihood, they will summon Spencer Arrighetti from Triple-A Sugar Land to fill one of the two open spots.<\/p>\n
Arrighetti is listed as Sugar Land\u2019s starting pitcher for Thursday\u2019s game, making him making him a logical candidate to start in the team\u2019s upcoming series against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Other than to reiterate the plan to expand the rotation, Espada declined to share specifics of the next steps.<\/p>\n
Peter Lambert, Colton Gordon and Jason Alexander could be called upon to help fill the other open rotation spot. Houston also has a cadre of long relievers \u2014 AJ Blubaugh, Kai-Wei Teng, Ryan Weiss and Cody Bolton \u2014 with whom it could cobble together bullpen games every sixth day. Bolton and Weiss performed a piggyback start during Monday\u2019s 9-7 loss at Coors Field, a game Brown was originally scheduled to start.<\/p>\n
Now, he must watch as Houston\u2019s reinforced pitching staff tries to compensate for the glaring void he leaves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a much better place,\u201d Espada said, \u201cbut it\u2019s impossible to replace someone like Hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Imaging on Houston Astros ace Hunter Brown\u2019s injured right shoulder revealed a Grade 2 muscle strain,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,1506,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-589896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-houston-astros","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}