Through five innings, the White Sox had everything going for them: Davis Martin with a 5-0 lead and a reasonable amount of pitches, and the Astros warming up a fourth pitcher after Spencer Arrighetti left with a foot nerve issue after one ineffective inning.
The next time they came to the plate, they somehow trailed by three.
It started with Yordan Alvarez, whom Martin neutralized in two tougher situations. Martin got him to ground into double play after Miguel Vargas threw high on Jeremy Peña's grounder to lead off the game, then got him to line softly to right with the bases loaded to end the third.
But leading off the fifth, Alvarez ripped a single through the right side, and that started the White Sox's unraveling. He then hit Isaac Paredes on the hand -- not the knob of the bat for a double play as it was originally ruled -- and Jose Altuve smashed a single through the left side to load the bases. LaMonte Wade Jr.'s grounder to the right side was a little softer, but at 91.3 mph, it still had enough to get past Chase Meidroth's diving attempt for Houston's first run, which still left the bases loaded with nobody out.
"Will was in the dugout, and was like ‘finish the play,’ so we just did it, obviously, we were like, ‘how lucky can we be tonight?’" Martin said of the HBP. "Altuve hits that ball a couple feet to the left, Wade a couple feet to the right, it's a completely different inning. I know it's all the old famous [saying] 'You can wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.' It's baseball. Baseball happened. It sucks."
Will Venable came out for Martin, but it was the first of two trips he'd make in the sixth. Bryan Hudson came in, gave up a bases-clearing double to Christian Walker on a hanging second-pitch sweeper. Vargas thought Walker's smash down the line was foul, but it's unreviewable, and although Hudson struck out Lucas Spencer for the illusion of footing, Cam Smith blasted a 2-2 fastball out to left for a stunning 6-5 lead.
"It’s a good spot where we are thinking that Huddy against anybody left or righty is a good person to pick up," said Venable. "It’s a big spot there. When you give up eight runs in that spot, going into that inning, probably a decision that I made or something that I missed there. As far as the timing with Huddy, there’s an argument for a batter before."
Hudson could've kept it there with the bases reset, especially after getting the second out afterward, but then came the first of two infield singles to keep the inning alive. Peña reached first, and after Hudson balked him to second, Venable called for the intentional walk to Alvarez and brought in Seranthony Domínguez to face some righties.
That didn't work, because Domínguez walked Paredes to load the bases, watched Altuve chop a moon shot off the plate for a second infield single to make it 7-5, and then issued a four-pitch walk for the eighth Houston run. Walker struck out to finally end the White Sox's misery, but the damage was done, because the White Sox offense couldn't stop popping out.
The White Sox popped out a dozen times over the course of the game while going 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
"They have a lot of verty, four-seam fastballs," Venable said. "You see guys swing underneath. There were a lot of flyballs in the infield."
It didn't kill them early on because they were patient enough to let Astros pitchers hurt themselves. They loaded the bases immediately on Arreghetti with a single and two walks. Colson Montgomery's unimpressive fly to center was enough to score Sam Antonacci, but Andrew Benintendi's popout to second that broke the seal on cheap outs jeopardized the crooked number.
Fortunately, Braden Montgomery's grounder to the right had plenty of steam on it to get through for a second run, and then Arrighetti plunked Tristan Peters and Chase Meidroth back-to-back for a third White Sox run.
Arrighetti came out for the second, but came out before throwing his first pitch because the foot bothered him too much during warmups. That effectively began a bullpen game for Houston, and while the White Sox took their time taking advantage of the situation, they were able to get back on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Benintendi walked, went from first to third with a good reason on Braden Montgomery's single to center, then scored on a wild pitch to give the White Sox a 4-0 lead. Peters hit one of those popouts, but Meidroth summoned an honest-to-goodness deep drive on a high sweeper and banged it off the ball for a 5-0 margin that wasn't nearly as comfortable as everybody was led to believe.
When the White Sox were tasked with erasing a three-run deficit, they couldn't string together productive plate appearances by themselves. Munetaka Murakami led off the sixth with a double and went nowhere. Peters reached with a one-out single in the seventh, but Meidroth struck out and Drew Romo popped out to the catcher (and didn't run). Antonacci doubled off a lefty to start the eighth, but Cam Smith made a nice sliding catch on Murakami's line drive to right, and two popouts followed.
The good news is the Astros had to use seven pitchers, including Josh Hader with a four-run lead in the ninth. The bad news is that the Sox could've done the same thing and won the game.
Bullet points:
*Chris Murphy put a stamp on a disappointing night for pitchers in the ninth. He plunked Taylor Trammell with one out, gave up a straightforward steal of second, watched as Trammell stole third after the ball was returned because Vargas wasn't minding third base, and then gave up an RBI double to the ninth-hitting Vázquez on an 0-2 fastball that split the plate at the knees.
*Seven players were hit by pitches -- four White Sox, three Astros -- which is a high for the season.
*Trevor Richards was the lone Sox pitcher who could hold his head high, throwing a pair of scoreless innings, but he was bailed out in the eighth because Peña retreated to second on what could've very well been an RBI double, not realizing Altuve’s ball had gotten by Braden Montgomery in right, and was thrown out at third standing up.
*Romo burned the second White Sox challenge on a first-pitch ball with one out and nobody on in the eighth and his team trailing by three. That seems like poor calculus.
