What can Brown do to you? Dominate your lineup, to start

Astros 3 Mets 1 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets record: 60-75

Mets streak: Lost 3

WP - Hunter Brown (4-3)

LP - Christian Scott (4-4)

SV - Josh Hader (20)

Seat on the Korner: Hunter Brown

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

Hunter Brown has been the best starter on the Astros during this recent stretch, and he lived up to that tonight striking out ten Mets in 6 and 2/3's innings while only giving up a run on five hits and a walk in the Astros' 3-1 win over the Mets tonight.

Need to Know

• Bo Bichette returned to the lineup tonight after missing a game with a foot contusion. Bichette went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

• Carson Benge's RBI double in the 4th kept a streak alive ... Benge hasn't had back-to-back hitless games since July 11th and 12th against the Red Sox.

• Christian Scott gave up three runs in 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up just one hit but walking five while striking out two.

• Daulton Varsho's two run single and Yainer Diaz's RBI single in the 6th were the first inherited runners that were given up by Nate Lavender this season.

• Marcus Semien's single in the 5th was his 1,700th career hit. He went 2-for-2 with a walk tonight.

Turning Point

The obvious turning point was Daulton Varsho's two run single in the 6th to give the Astros the lead. But to me, the low key turning point came earlier when Christian Scott walked the bases loaded, with the actual pivot point for me coming when Scott walked Jose Altuve to load the bases.

Altuve fouled off pitches 6, 7, and 8. If he misses on any of them, we're talking about how Altuve did Scott a favor. But he just got enough contact on them to stay in the at-bat and get a pitch that not even the likes of Vladimir Guerrero or Jonathan Villar would offer it. Scott came out of the game after that and that led to this ...

Three Keys

Hunter is the Hunted

Brown, as mentioned in Ralph's seat, was awesome tonight. Got into a little bit of trouble in the 4th when he gave up a run on Benge's single and also got into a little bit of trouble in the 5th when the Mets touched him up to put runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. But Brown got A.J. Ewing to ground into a double play to end the inning.

Other than that, Brown was dominant.

Brown lowered his ERA to 3.33 on the season.

Outta Gas

Christian Scott was matching Brown zero for zero in the first five innings and was doing so even after a laborious first inning which saw him throw 23 pitches. But he hit a groove in the next four innings, throwing innings of 13, 18, 10 and 10 pitches. The most amazing thing was that he had only struck out one batter in the first five, and that was the last batter of the 5th.

But then with one out in the 6th, he got careful against Yordan Alvarez and walked him on four pitches. No shame in that. But a home run only ties the game. Perhaps if he goes after him, the inning doesn't go as south as it did. Perhaps Yordan hits a home run. But maybe the game doesn't get away from them. As it was, Scott couldn't get his control back after that, walking the next two before exiting the game.

He only gave up one hit tonight, which was great. He just needs to trust his stuff and attack the strike zone for his best chance to take the next step in his career.

Best Thing I Saw Tonight

It was Dedniel Nunez's 8th inning. He's now had four straight scoreless outings, and after a slow start he is starting to remind everyone that the pitcher he was in 2024 is still in there somewhere, and that's a great sign for 2027.

In the absence of video from tonight, here's how good Nunez was in 2024 ...