Will Venable asked more of Grant Taylor than ever before, and although it took a single-game high amount of pitches over a single-game high in innings, Taylor ultimately answered the call.
Taylor came in to handle the final out of the seventh, and although it looked like he should've been depleted after weathering a nerve-racking 30-pitch eighth, he came back out for the ninth and worked around a one-out walk to close out the game.
Taylor ended up pitching the final 2 ⅓ innings, which was only one out beyond a 20-way tie for his previous longest outing. But he ended up using 54 pitches when he'd never thrown more than 40 in a single game, so he left it all out on the field.
The White Sox still have to win another game to secure the series, but as has been the case so often this year, Venable will cross that bridge when he gets to it.
The ending should have been easier, because the White Sox controlled this game from the jump, and the crowd didn't really factor into it until the eighth inning, when Miguel Vargas' throw after fielding a Jose Altuve chopper pulled Munetaka Murakami off the bag for a run-scoring and inning-extending E-5.
While Hagen Smith delivered an opening experience beyond anybody's expectations -- three scoreless innings on just 38 pitches -- the White Sox blew up Houston's pitching plan. AJ Blubaugh exited after two outs due to three walks. One of them was a leadoff pass to Sam Antonacci, who went from first to third when Christian Walker's attempt to turn a 3-6 double play hit Antonacci and bounced into left field, and a Munetaka Murakami sac fly cashed him in.
An inning later, the Sox posted their only crooked number against lefty Bryan King. Braden Montgomery and Chase Meidroth shot singles to right field, Colson Montgomery was plunked by a 1-2 fastball, and then Sam Antonacci poked a two-run single to left giving the Sox a 3-0 lead.
Teel then singled to load the bases and chase King from the game, but that triggered one of the evening's themes, which was an inability to land the kill shot.
The Sox had the bases loaded with nobody out against new reliever Miguel Ullola, but Vargas tapped into a force at home, and Murakami and Andrew Benintendi each struck out on three pitches to leave them loaded.
The Sox had to settle for smaller scores, and through some baffling means. In the fourth, Colson Montgomery snapped his 0-for-24 skid by launching an up-and-away 0-2 fastball off the batter's eye in center field for a solo shot and a 4-0 lead.
In the fifth, Murakami drew a walk off lefty reliever Josh Hendrickson, and Tristan Peters (single) and Braden Montgomery (single) also foiled the supposed matchup disadvantage to load the bases with one out. Chase Meidroth was able to get one run home with a bouncer to the left side that eluded Isaac Paredes' swipe and got to Jeremy Peña too late for the Houston shortstop to do anything about it, resulting in an infield-single and a 5-0 lead, but Colson Montgomery bounced into the first of three double plays over three innings.
In the sixth, Kyle Teel's grounder to short negated Antonacci's leadoff HBP with a 6-3 double play, and a more promising threat was also cut short by a twin killing in the seventh. Murakami and Randal Grichuk led off with singles off another lefty in Bennett Sousa and moved up on a Peters sac bunt. Sousa then bounced a pair of sliders in the dirt to Braden Montgomery, neither of which MOntgomery could resist, but one deflected off Yainer Diaz for run-scoring #WILDPITCHOFFENSE, and the second resulted in a nearly identical wild pitch that allowed Montgomery to reach on the dropped third strike. Grichuk could have scored but didn't break for home, and that missing run risked costing the White Sox when Meidroth bounced into a 4-6-3 double play.
Fortunately, the White Sox pitching plan held firm enough. Smith allowed a couple of hits, but he kept most contact on the ground and let the Astros hit him into trouble, and they couldn't. He gave way to Jordan Hicks, who retired all four batters he faced.
With nobody on and one out, Venable went to Sean Newcomb, and that was the only call that really backfired. He gave up a single to Lucas Spence, and then a two-out, no-doubt two-run shot to pinch-hitting Nelson Velázquez which made it a 5-2 game. (The gopher ball was a third consecutive high fastball, so let's see if Teel's pitch-calling is once again alluded to postgame).
Newcomb rebounded to end the fifth and retire Alvarez to open the sixth. After that, Will Venable called upon David Sandlin. The rookie was impressive, needig just five pitches to get a pair of routine outs in the sixth, and then responding to a one-out walk by gloving a Lucas Spence dribbler and winning a foot race to first base because Murakami strayed too far off the bag. With a 6-3 lead, two outs and eighth-hitting righty Cam Smith at the plate, Venable could have seen if Sandlin could have pitched into the eighth. Instead, he opted for Taylor with no safety net.
Taylor got Smith to ground out to end the seventh and froze Velázquez to open the eighth to turn over the lineup, but Peña and Alvarez both singled sharply to put runners on the corners with one out. Taylor held them for one batter by striking out Paredes with a tipped 1-2 slider that Teel got his mitt under, but Peña came home when Altuve hit a bouncer to third and hustled to rush Vargas' throw across the diamond. The umpire signaled that Murakami left the bag on the stretch, and the replay didn't conclusively show otherwise, so the White Sox lost the challenge.
Fortunately, the only ramification was a higher pitch count. Taylor won a seven-pitch battle by locking up Diaz with a 3-2 curveball, then pitched around a leadoff walk without bringing the tying run to the plate in the ninth. He struck out Spence high and Smith low before Velázquez hit another grounder to third, and this time Vargas' throw was on-target enough to let Taylor rest.
Bullet points:
*Hicks came away with the win for his 1⅓ perfect innings.
*The White Sox went 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position. It wasn't as effective as that would suggest, but it was better than the Astros' 0-for-7 showing.
*Teel was 3-for-3 in challenging balls into strikes, and they had some leverage to them.
*Venable was 0-for-2 in challenging calls on the field, including a curious attempt to call Altuve for illegal positioning on Antonacci's groundout to second in the fourth inning. His heel might've been on the edge of the outfield grass as the pitch was being delivered, but no replay angle showed it conclusively.
*The announced attendance was 34,011. Daikin Park's listed attendance is 40,963.
*Antonacci reached base with a walk, two-run single and HBP at the top of the order and was not tested in left field before being replaced by Brenton Doyle. That's just the ideal postseason debut for him.
*All 10 White Sox who came to the plate reached base at least once.
