On another night, the Houston Astros' game plan of hacking away at early-count fastballs might've allowed Garrett Crochet to get through six innings on 60 pitches.
Tonight, it worked well enough that Crochet had to throw 85 pitches over six innings. While that total typically represents efficiency, it doesn't quite capture how many pitches Crochet had to throw with runners on board.
The Astros landed nine hits safely, and while they were never quite able to land a knockout punch, they were able to scratch across three runs over six innings. Combined with Hunter Brown's strong six innings, and they had no problems winning this one by decision.
Of the 16 balls the Astros put in play, 13 were within the first two pitches of an at-bat. Beyond the knack for BABIP, they also got on base early enough in an inning to make something of it.
In the third, the Astros posted runners on second and third with nobody out after a single and a double, and while Victor Caratini was cut down at home plate on a hopeless contact play, Jose Altuve reloaded the bases with a single, and Mauricio Dubón beat an attempted 4-6-3 double play for Andrew Vaughn's favorite weapon: the run-scoring fielder's choice.
An inning later, Crochet issued his only walk of the game to Yainer Diaz, who advanced on a 76.1 mph, second-pitch single by Jeremy Peña, and scored on César Salazar's first-pitch flare to left for a 2-0 Astros lead.
Crochet was able to work around consecutive one-out singles in the fifth because Korey Lee alerted him to Dubón's attempt to swipe third before Crochet started his delivery, but Jake Meyers doubled with one out in the sixth, and Salazar shot a full-count cutter back through the box for a 3-1 lead. Meyers then doubled to start the eighth against Steven Wilson, and Houston manufactured an insurance run.
One wasn't needed, because the White Sox couldn't sequence their singles in a similar fashion. Andrew Benintendi was able to ambush an elevated fastball for a solo shot in the fourth that ended Brown's scoreless streak at 16 innings, but the other six hits didn't amount to anything.
They had chances in subsequent innings. Korey Lee started the fifth with a single and moved to third on Tommy Pham's one-out hit, but Gavin Sheets picked a poor time to ground into a rare double play to kill the threat. In the sixth, Luis Robert Jr. led off with a single and stole second, but a strikeout, popout and groundout left him there.
Bullet point:
*Crochet was able to strike out eight to extend his American League leading total to 124. It was the first time he's givien up three runs in a game since April, but he did extend his quality start streak to six.
*The White Sox were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, while the Astros were 3-for-11.
