Rough outing raises questions for Astros starter Mike Burrows as Hunter Brown nears return

Sunday’s 5-0 loss to the Athletics at Daikin Park put new pressure on Astros starter Mike Burrows. Burrows worked five innings and allowed five runs, four earned, on eight hits, two walks, and two home runs as Houston fell for a third time in a matchup that has offered little margin for error. The damage, per the team’s own recap, came in part because batters continued to pounce on his four-seam fastball, a trend that has become expensive for him over the first half of the season.

According to ’s game story, Burrows tried to alter the shape of his outing by moving toward the third-base side of the rubber and leaning more heavily on his changeup. In Sunday’s 97-pitch outing, he threw the changeup 39 times (43 percent) while cutting back on four-seam usage, and he acknowledged that his fastball has not cut the same way it did last year. Still, the result did not match the adjustment, with Nick Kurtz and Brent Rooker each delivering a home run to complete another short, rough afternoon.

The bigger question is what happens next, not just how Burrows responds. Yahoo Sports reported that Burrows was the only Astros starter to make every rotation turn through the first 67 games, but that streak is now meeting a new reality: Hunter Brown is nearing a return that will force Houston to revisit its starting-pitcher pecking order. ’s recap also underscored how much the rest of the staff has relied on Burrows to provide innings, while Burrows has struggled with the run prevention fundamentals that keep a rotation anchored.

From Houston’s perspective, Brown’s imminent availability is the pressure valve. reported that Astros general manager Dana Brown said Hunter Brown would need to get built up to about 75 pitches before returning, with the expectation that it would be mid-June. The club also confirmed in a separate rehab update that Brown’s most recent minor-league rehab start included two scoreless innings with five strikeouts and no walks, part of a ramp-up that is designed to avoid bringing a heavy workload into the majors too quickly.

further noted the scheduling mechanics around Brown’s return: the Astros are planning to shift to a six-man rotation after Thursday’s day off, followed by 13 consecutive games without an off-day. Brown’s activation would give Houston a full set of six starters, but the rotation shuffle also means Burrows’ leash could shorten if the issues continue, especially considering ’s note that Burrows’ home-run and walk profile has been one of the reasons the team’s rotation has lagged, including an American League-high total of home runs allowed by Burrows through this stretch.

What to watch in the next start is whether Burrows can translate his tinkering into fewer big innings. quoted manager Joe Espada emphasizing the importance of limiting damage, and catcher Christian Vázquez echoed the theme by pointing to the need to attack more hitters and, specifically, control walks. Burrows is scheduled to face Kansas City next, and for Houston, it will be less about whether he avoids one bad inning and more about whether he can keep the fastball from turning into “easy damage” at the scale required for him to remain in the everyday mix.

Brown’s return timing and usage will likely determine the long-term answer to the rotation question. If Houston commits to the six-man structure as planned, Burrows may still have a path forward, but his next outings will shape whether he is viewed as a stabilizing fifth starter or the kind of high-variance piece that gets cycled more aggressively in a tight, no-off-day stretch.