White Sox sweep Astros, advance to ALDS
The White Sox completed their two-game sweep of the Astros with a 7-3 victory in Houston on Wednesday afternoon.
The White Sox jumped on the Astros for four runs in the opening inning – helped out by a pair of defensive miscues from the Astros – and held onto that advantage throughout the ballgame. They chased Astros’ ace right-hander Hunter Brown in that opening frame after throwing only 36 pitches.
Things got tight in the middle innings as the Astros got solo homers from Jeremy Pena, Cam Smith and Jose Altuve to pull to within one run at 4-3, but Anthony Kay did some fantastic work out of the bullpen in the fifth inning, stranding the bases loaded to keep the lead intact.
The next half inning, Chase Meidroth clubbed a three-run homer off of Bryan Abreu that increased their advantage to four runs and basically put the game out of reach. Neither team would score from that point forward.
Sean Burke worked the first four innings for the White Sox, striking out eight batters, but allowing three runs on four hits along the way. The White Sox’ bullpen kept the Astros off the scoreboard over the final five innings — with Huascar Brazoban, Anthony Kay, Jordan Hicks and Erick Fedde all doing strong work, allowing a combined one hit and one walk over five frames while striking out seven.
Next up for the White Sox will be a showdown against the divisional-rival Guardians in Cleveland, beginning in Cleveland on Saturday afternoon.