"Is Hunter Brown the WORST pitcher of all time?" - Fans troll Astros as starter gives up 9 runs in 1st inning against Royals

It was an outing to remember for Houston Astros starter Hunter Brown. The 25-year-old pitcher delivered one of the worst starts of his career on Thursday against the Kansas City Royals. The promising young pitcher was charged with a whopping 9 earned runs in only 0.2 innings of work, pushing his season-long ERA to an abysmal 16.43.

It's clear that something was off for Hunter Brown, whether he was tipping his pitches or he was dealing with some sort of health issue. No matter the cause of his dreadful outing, the Kansas City Royals had no problem picking up the ball out of his hand, racking up 11 hits in the process.

According to the popular baseball channel Codify, the 11 hits by the Kansas City Royals on Hunter Brown are the most ever given up in less than one inning of work in MLB history. A fifth-round pick of the Houston Astros in 2019, Brown has long been dubbed as a potential star in the making, yet outings like these have some doubting his overall ceiling.

The fact that the poor outing came from a starting pitcher of the Houston Astros is something that many MLB fans couldn't resist online. A number of fans across the baseball landscape took to social media to take shots at both Brown and the Houston Astros organization.

"Is Hunter Brown the WORST pitcher of all time?" - One fan posted

"Not even one inning and no strikes either. He got cooked real bad" - Another chimed in

Although it has been roughly 7 years since the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal rocked the MLB, many baseball fans and purists have condemned the organization ever since. Even though the team won the World Series again in 2022, many disgruntled fans have capitalized on every opportunity to troll the franchise, something they have done with Brown's dreadful outing.

"Houston is cooked" - One of these fans joked

"Are the Astros finally gonna be bad again?" - Said another

The Houston Astros' depleted pitching staff will need Hunter Brown to sort things out in a hurry

Even after the disastrous showing against the Kansas City Royals, the Houston Astros will need to keep Brown in the rotation, at least until some of their injured arms make their way back. The Astros have been ravaged by injuries early this season, which is one of the reasons why the team owned a 4-9 record entering Thursday's action.

Currently, Houston is without the likes of Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Lance McCullers Jr., and Justin Verlander. Unfortunately for Brown, he had been compared to Verlander, something that the anti-Astros fans were quick to point out.

"But it’s baby Verlander I was told!" - One fan said

"Next Verlander btw" - Said another