The head-to-head record will show that the White Sox lost five of seven games to the Astros this year, outscored 35-23 along the way.
At a series level, the White Sox and Astros finished the season tied at 1, and the Sox have no reason to feel inferior or undermatched -- especially when the starting pitching delivers.
Carlos Rodón nearly matched Lucas Giolito's complete-game gem on Saturday by throwing seven shutout innings today, teaming up with Michael Kopech and Liam Hendriks for a one-hitter and a series victory. A third-inning Abraham Toro one-hopper past a diving Danny Mendick at second resulted in the only Houston baserunner all afternoon.
Rodón struck out 10 batters over seven innings while throwing fewer than 100 pitches. He led with his fastball and never really deviated from that game plan, throwing it for 62 of his 98 pitches. He generated 16 whiffs, and he also generated plenty of unremarkable contact. Of the 24 hardest-hit balls in this game, the White Sox had 18 of them. As a result, the Astros didn't even advance a runner into scoring position.
That gave the White Sox offense ample time to build a comfortable lead, which they did with four single tallies over the course of innings two through seven. The contributions ranged small and large, with RBI singles by Mendick and Adam Engel bookending solo shots for Yoán Moncada and Tim Anderson. Dusty Baker seemed content to ride Framber Valdez toward 100 pitches and seven innings even though he didn't baffle the Sox, and the Sox took up Houston on the generosity.
The only lowlight came in the eighth inning, when the Sox TOOTBLAN'd into a double play because nobody remembers the rule that the lead runner always has the rights to the base he's returning to. With runners on second and third with one out, Adam Engel got hung up between third and home on a contact play. He retreated toward third, where José Abreu stood.
At this point, the White Sox had two options:
Safest: Let Engel give himself up once he sees that Abreu is anchored to third.
Moderate risk: Have Abreu retreat toward second if he thinks Engel can make it back, attempting to sow confusion in the Astros defense, although it could also confuse Engel and/or Andrew Vaughn, who had reached first on his chopper to second base.
Instead, the Sox chose the third door: Keep Abreu anchored to third while Engel runs past the bag on his retreat. Martín Maldonado first tagged Abreu, then tagged Engel, and they both were out.
The White Sox bullpen didn't need the insurance run, as Kopech and Hendriks both threw perfect innings to close it out.
Bullet points:
*Moncada hit his first homer since June 3, which was 117 plate appearances ago.
*Anderson extended his hitting streak to 15 games with his homer.
*Mendick's two-out RBI single in the second came after Valdez plunked Seby Zavala after getting ahead 0-2, which was the kind of unforced error a good team seizes.
*The White Sox are a game up on Houston for the best record in the American League, with the Red Sox in between.
*Rodón improved to 8-3 with a 2.14 ERA.
*Total attendance for the weekend: 102,968.
