Despite being rain-delayed by more than two hours, tonight was actually fun for a few innings.
José Abreu received his video tribute and receiving his long-overdue standing ovation from White Sox fans, then a hearty punch in the back from Tim Anderson after Abreu stole a single with a sliding stop. Luis Robert Jr. hit a majestic solo shot off J.P. France. Michael Kopech held the Astros hitless, and got a little sassy with the Houston dugout during the second inning.
But the gap between how many walks the White Sox issue and how many walks the White Sox draw has been a persistent issue all season, and tonight was no exception. White Sox pitchers walked eight Astros, but only drew one walk themselves, and that drove the wedge in the scoreboard.
The Astros took a 2-1 lead at the halfway point with only one hit. Kopech, who walked six batters over 4⅔ innings, walked the leadoff man in both the fourth and fifth innings. Kyle Tucker came around to score on a stolen base, productive out by José Abreu and a sac fly, while ninth-hitting Martin Maldonado walked to start the fifth, moved to second on a one-out walk, then scored when Andrew Benintendi couldn't come up with Tucker's slicing fly in the left-field corner after a long run.
The White Sox briefly threatened in the fifth when Robert singled to lead off the fifth and Seby Zavala singled two batters later. The threat ended after a flyout and a groundout, and Astros pitchers went on to retire 14 of the last 15 batters they faced, with a Gavin Sheets two-out walk in the seventh inning the lone exception.
The Astros actually started hitting in the sixth inning, with two-out RBI doubles by Maldonado and Mauricio Dubon off Gregory Santos putting the game away. Yordan Alvarez hit a majestic shot that would've threatened the fiberglass goose behind the right-field seats were it still there in the ninth inning, which at least provided the remaining fans some entertainment.
Despite all the walks, the offense was the bigger problem. They were held to three hits by a guy making his second career start, and six consecutive spots in the order failed to reach base (8-9-1-2-3-4 went 0-for-22 with four strikeouts). Robert and Zavala were the only White Sox to make hard contact that stayed off the ground.
A pregame meeting didn't help, nor did the return of Yoán Moncada, who went 0-for-4 with three groundouts and a strikeout. Elvis Andrus departed the game clutching his side after his eighth-inning groundout, and was replaced by Hanser Alberto after Alberto pinch-hit for Adam Haseley in a reverse-split situation against Bryan Abreu that was probably overthinking it.
The White Sox tied their season worst water mark at 14 games under .500, although every team in the AL Central lost today, so the Sox remain just 8½ out of first in spite of it all.
Bullet points:
*José Abreu went 1-for-4 in his first time at Guaranteed Rate Field as a visitor, flipping a two-out single to center off Aaron Bummer in the seventh.
*Kopech threw just 48 of 94 pitches for strikes, and was especially wild with his fastball. He only got five swinging strikes on 94 pitches, in part because the Astros only swung 32 times.
*Santos broke the fourth wall, so at least we got a meme out of it.
