Yoán Moncada hit his second homer in as many games in the top of the ninth inning, and Luis Robert Jr. made an incredible sliding catch on the left-center warning track in the bottom of the ninth.
Both came with the Sox leading by five, but by the time Reynaldo López threw his 36th pitch of the ninth inning, both were a little too crucial in securing the split.
The Sox once again let the Astros off the hook at the plate, and the bullpen once again let them back into the game, but they produced enough big hits for an adequate cushion, and they'll return to Chicago for the home opener no worse for the wear.
(The first pitch of said home opener is now slated for 2:10 p.m., an hour earlier due to the weather forecast.)
Moncada's opposite-field two-run shot off Seth Martinez pushed the game out of a save situation, but López wanted to get back into one after issuing a walk to the ninth-hitting César Salazar to open the inning. Then he walked Jeremy Pena, but recovered to strike out Alex Bregman (who had a horrible opening series) for some footing.
Kyle Tucker then redirected an up-and-outer-half fastball to the gap in deep left center. Statcast gave it an expected batting average of .630, and perhaps it would've been a two-run double with Luis Robert in center field.
But this is Luis Robert Junior we're talking about, with the legs and spirit of a younger man. He took a direct route and outran the slice, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have had to slide if he didn't have to worry about stopping before the wall. Benintendi leaped over him, and Robert returned the ball to the infield before runners could advance.
Those runners did advance. José Abreu shot a single to right field, and so did David Hensley to make it a 6-3 game, bringing the tying run to the plate. Even though Dusty Baker did not go to Yordan Alvarez on the bench -- Jake Diekman was ready for him in the bullpen, if that's even possible -- López still had problems with Chas McCormick. He struggled to come to an agreement with Yasmani Grandal and disengaged with the rubber three times, allowing both runners to advance 90 feet.
Mercifully, things stopped mattering when McCormick could only muster a weak popout to Andrew Vaughn, ending the game.
It could've been easier, whether because of the five-run lead, or because the White Sox failed to score runs after loading the bases with nobody out.
In the second inning, the Sox packed the sacks on a Moncada double, Vaughn HBP and Grandal single. But Oscar Colás swung over three identical Yimi Garcia cutters down and in, Elvis Andrus also ended up chasing cutters down and away, and Tim Anderson grounded out.
Colás and Andrus again faltered two innings later. With runners on second and third after a Moncada walk and a Grandal double, Colás got sawed off on a cutter up and in, and Andrus flied out to right center.
Robert finally put the Sox on the board in much simpler terms in the fifth, golfing a knee-high, plate-splitting fastball well out to left for the game's first run.
The Sox never trailed, because they found ways to tack on. Andrew Vaughn finally ended the RISP drought with a palpable hit to center, which scored Moncada after a leadoff double. Grandal then walked to bring Colás to the plate, and this time he brought an inside-out swing with him. Phil Maton challenged him with an inside curveball for strike one, and whe he came back inside with a fastball on the second pitch, Colás got his hands in and guided a grounder inside third base to score Vaughn, making it a 3-0 game.
(Andrus then got plunked to load the bases, but Anderson struck out, Robert popped out and Benintendi grounded out for the second bases-loaded-nobody-out fiasco.)
That inning helped absorb Gregory Santos' rocky one-run sixth, and after Aaron Bummer pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, Anderson atoned for his previous failure with an RBI double off the center field wall that scored Colás. He'd reached with another inside-out single, this one of the infield variety. Kendall Graveman pitched around a one-out single for the hold.
Because the Sox grabbed the lead in the top of the fifth and never trailed, Mike Clevinger came away from his White Sox debut with a victory. He struck out eight over five innings, which allowed him to keep the Astros off the board despite giving up a fair amount of bases. He allowed three singles and three walks, plunked two batters and yielded a stolen base. His fastball averaged 95, which allowed him to emphasize his fastball-slider combination and little else.
The starting pitching held up its end of the bargain in the opening series, especially when you consider the Astros aren't known for striking out.
Bullet points:
*Moncada went 3-for-4 with a homer, two doubles and a walk. He finished the series 8-for-18, with five of those hits going for extra bases.
*The White Sox had eight extra-base hits on the day. The Astros had none.
*The game wrapped up in 3 hours and 6 minutes, and half of that was in the bottom of the ninth.
*Andrus went 0-for-4 with eight stranded, as he's still seeking his 2,000th hit.
*Bregman finished the series 0-for-16 with two walks and seven strikeouts.
