HOUSTON \u2014 The Chicago White Sox were seeking their first series win in Houston since 2016.<\/p>\n
Mike Tauchman led off the ninth inning Thursday night with a home run to right field against Astros closer Josh Hader, pulling the Sox within one run. And with two outs, Miguel Vargas just missed another home run, doubling off the top of the high left-field wall at Daikin Park.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI just try to make contact, try to be on base to give the opportunity to the next guy,\u201d Vargas said. \u201cA little sad it didn\u2019t go over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hader rebounded, striking out Austin Slater looking as the Astros hung on to defeat the Sox 4-3 in front of 28,003.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally proud of the guys,\u201d Sox manager Will Venable said. \u201cThey played a great baseball game today. Really all over the place. I thought we did a good job battling these guys and just came up short.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vargas and Edgar Quero each had three hits. Vargas scored twice while Quero drove in two runs. But the American League West-leading Astros had an answer after the Sox scored early on the way to taking two of three in the series.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen your offense scratches and claws against one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game (Framber Valdez), you can\u2019t go out there and give up runs right after,\u201d said Sox starter Davis Martin, who allowed four runs on seven hits in six innings. \u201cGot to keep the momentum on our side. That\u2019s the biggest frustrating thing for me, giving those things right back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vargas doubled and stole third in the third inning. Quero knocked him in with a single.<\/p>\n
The Astros responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Jeremy Pe\u00f1a reached when Vargas couldn\u2019t cleanly field his grounder to third, which was ruled a single. Isaac Paredes walked and Jose Altuve drove them both in with a double.<\/p>\n
Yainer Diaz followed with an RBI double, making it 3-1.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur offense took some really good ABs, scratched one on,\u201d Martin said. \u201cAnd we need a zero there and that\u2019s a big frustrating point for me. And it\u2019s something I need to work on going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sox (23-46) nearly got a run back in the fourth when Chase Meidroth hit a sinking liner to right field with a runner on third and two outs. But Cam Smith charged and made a sliding catch. The Sox contemplated challenging the call on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of 50-50,\u201d Venable said. \u201cWe thought that he did catch it and ultimately didn\u2019t. But yeah, it was close. In the fourth inning there, risk tolerance was probably a little lower and so it was a no.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sox did come through with a run in the fifth when Vargas tripled and Quero drove him in with another single.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMost of the time Framber, I know everything is moving away, so I was trying to put the ball in play and we got hits,\u201d Quero said.<\/p>\n
The Sox made Valdez work, collecting seven hits against the lefty in his five innings. He limited the damage, largely because of 12 strikeouts in his 95-pitch performance.<\/p>\n
Just as quickly as the Sox got within a run, the Astros bounced back in the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run from Paredes to make it 4-2.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Paredes home run, you\u2019ve just got to tip your cap,\u201d Martin said. \u201cAll and all, felt good, felt like we battled. Didn\u2019t think I had a chance to go six innings, but made some really good pitches down the stretch and got there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Sox still trailed by two heading into the ninth when Tauchman hit Hader\u2019s fifth pitch over the right-field wall. After the next two batters were retired, Vargas extended the inning with his double.<\/p>\n
\u201cA really good battle against a really good pitcher, put a good swing on it, need a couple more push-ups on that one,\u201d Venable said.<\/p>\n
Hader collected the Astros\u2019 16th strikeout of the evening, punching out Slater looking to end the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of the guys in that they put themselves in this spot to continue to fight, to continue to battle and play well,\u201d Venable said. \u201cI think you\u2019re starting to feel our reaction to these are no longer, \u2018Way to go, we competed,\u2019 it\u2019s we\u2019re upset that we didn\u2019t win the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the reflection of the growth of this club and that\u2019s what you earn by playing good baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 The Chicago White Sox were seeking their first series win in Houston since 2016. Mike Tauchman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,4155,5,451,1001,49,5285,458,79,139,54,3211,893,5828,817,1109,4154,6647,4,286,998,5355],"class_list":{"0":"post-100103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-austin-slater","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-cam-smith","12":"tag-chase-meidroth","13":"tag-chicago-white-sox","14":"tag-davis-martin","15":"tag-edgar-quero","16":"tag-framber-valdez","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-houston-astros","19":"tag-houstonastros","20":"tag-isaac-paredes","21":"tag-jeremy-pena","22":"tag-jose-altuve","23":"tag-josh-hader","24":"tag-miguel-vargas","25":"tag-mike-tauchman","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-sox","28":"tag-will-venable","29":"tag-yainer-diaz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114674561450721511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}