{"id":816047,"date":"2026-09-28T04:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/816047\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T04:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:00:30","slug":"chicago-white-sox-headed-to-houston-for-al-wild-card-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/816047\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox headed to Houston for AL wild-card series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Astros gave the Chicago White Sox fits during their regular-season meetings.<\/p>\n

The Sox hope for better results when the teams square off in an American League wild-card series<\/a>. The best-of-three matchup begins on Tuesday at Daikin Park in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcited about it,\u201d Sox manager Will Venable said. \u201cWe know how good a club they have. We know the challenges they present with their lineup, Yordan (Alvarez). Got really good arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayed them recently, had our challenges with them, so we understand how good a team they are, but we\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Astros captured the AL West title, wrapping up their season with a 9-0 victory against the Athletics on Sunday in West Sacramento, Calif. They outlasted the Texas Rangers, who lost 6-4 to the Minnesota Twins before Houston\u2019s game went final to officially clinch the division for the Astros.<\/p>\n

The Sox closed out the regular season on Sunday with a 4-2 win against the Colorado Rockies in front of 29,767 at Rate Field. Randal Grichuk and Brenton Doyle both hit two-run home runs while starting pitcher Anthony Kay allowed one run over five innings as the Sox completed the regular season 84-78.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago White Sox pitcher Anthony Kay (18) delivers during the second inning of a game against the Colorado Rockies at Rate Field on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (Arthur Maiorella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnthony was great today,\u201d Venable said. \u201cThe changeup was really effective for him. Saw a lot of swing-and-miss on the changeup. Was able to land it in the zone. And when he\u2019s throwing off speed in the zone, whether it\u2019s the changeup or the sweeper, he\u2019s really effective. I thought he did a great job with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd offensively, nice to see (Grichuk) and Doyle with some nice swings there. Good vibe in the building and the guys really responded.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they are not done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal of playing this game is to get in the playoffs,\u201d Grichuk said. \u201cSo the fact is, now we\u2019re in and everything starts fresh, so it\u2019s one of those things that the past doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s what are you doing for me now, and what are you going to do for me in the playoffs?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox knew they would be heading somewhere in the Lone Star State as the No. 6 seed after falling short of winning the AL Central title with Saturday\u2019s 9-6 loss to the Rockies<\/a> combined with Cleveland\u2019s 11-5 win against the Kansas City Royals, wrapping up the division crown for the Guardians.<\/p>\n

Now the opponent is set, with Game 1 and Game 2 scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.<\/a> and broadcast on Peacock and NBCSN. The entire series will be played in Houston.<\/p>\n

The Sox went 2-5 against the Astros in the regular season, including losing three of four<\/a> during an Aug. 31-Sept. 3 series in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t really play too well against them in the regular season, but there were some guys scuffling in different moments of playing them,\u201d Grichuk said. \u201cSo, looking around the clubhouse talking about it, we\u2019re not too worried about it. I think we match up well with them, and it\u2019s one of those things that we\u2019re ready to get down there and get going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos: Chicago White Sox 4, Colorado Rockies 2<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Sox had their moments, including when Munetaka Murakami had a huge day against the Astros on July 26 at Rate Field by hitting two home runs and driving in six<\/a> during a 12-3 victory.<\/p>\n

The Sox had some success limiting the damage for AL MVP candidate Alvarez, who went 4-for-20 (.200) with no home runs and one RBI in the seven games.<\/p>\n

The Sox are brainstorming their pitching plan for the upcoming games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get together here as we make our way to Houston and talk about what we\u2019re going to do with our pitching, our lineup, without knowing right off the bat who they\u2019re going to start,\u201d Venable said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll start talking about those things as we get more information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox completed the regular season with a 24-game improvement from last season (60-102) to this year. The 84 wins are the most by a team following three-straight 100-loss seasons in major-league history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone really expected it,\u201d Kay said. \u201cI think we had a vision and we executed it. But I don\u2019t think anyone saw the kind of success that we had, and I think it was really fun to be a part of. Hopefully we can continue it as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Astros are the next test.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t look at it as season series record and how we played against them in the past,\u201d Grichuk said. \u201cWe understand that we were scuffling as a whole, and we don\u2019t even really pay attention to that. We\u2019re starting fresh and we\u2019re ready to start the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendance notes<\/p>\n

The Sox finished 2026 with a home season attendance of 1,986,419. It was the largest for the club since 2022 and the second-largest in the last 15 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Astros gave the Chicago White Sox fits during their regular-season meetings. The Sox hope for better…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[40005,5,49,167,52,4316,54,4,2305,2303,45688,168,99115],"class_list":["post-816047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-rockies","tag-american-league-wild-card","tag-baseball","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-coloradorockies","tag-houston-astros","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-mlb-wild-card","tag-rockies","tag-white-sox-playoffs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117346672902366320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816047","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=816047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}