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Houston Takes Game One
It was a bad night all around if your team was named after misspelled footwear. While the Red Sox spent the night getting beaten in a largely uncompetitive game against the Rays, the White Sox were doing the same earlier in the day against the Astros. Houston had the slight advantage in record this season and were hosting for this series opener, but you wouldn’t think the gap was slight if you had just watched this game.
Lance McCullers Jr. was the big story of this game, with Houston’s starter just dominating the White Sox all game, tossing 6 2⁄3 shutout innings. The righty typically has some control issues that can get him into trouble, but Chicago was unable to draw a single walk off him, which in a way set the tone for this game. They’d manage just one run on the day.
Houston, on the other hand, doesn’t have all of their big bats from their 2017 run, but they can still hit the baseball. Yordan Alvarez was the star of the show on that side for the Astros, getting on base three times including a solo homer as well as a double and a walk. As a team, Houston had 10 hits along with three walks. Lance Lynn has been a steady force in Chicago’s rotation all season, but he could’t make it through four while allowing five runs in this game.
With the 6-1 victory, Houston holds a 1-0 series lead over the White Sox, with Game Two coming on Friday. They’ll be playing in the 2:07 time slot, with Lucas Giolito going for Chicago while the Astros start Framber Valdez.