Cheers at Rate Field turned to boos and a stunned crowd of 28,657 could only shake their collective heads in disbelief as the Astros would erase a five-run deficit in defeating the White Sox by a score of 9-5.
The night began inauspiciously enough. The White Sox would send all nine men to the plate in the first inning as Spencer Arrighetti was noticeably bothered and largely out of sync with control issues. Arrighetti would toss seventeen pitches before finally recording his first out. He’d allow
a pair of hits, pair of walks, while also hitting a pair of batsmen. This resulted in the bases being loaded up twice with the Sox jumping out to an early 3-0 lead.
AJ Blubaugh would warm up in the bullpen during the disastrous events, ultimately relieving Arrighetti who would walk off the field prior to starting the 2nd inning with trainer Eric Velazquez during his warmup pitches. Arrighetti’s final stat line: one inning pitched, two hits allowed, three earned runs and a pair of walks on thirty-three pitches. Early reports are right foot nerve irritation. Spencer’s last win was 57 days ago, back on May 28th. Blubaugh would pitch two scoreless innings of relief.
In the bottom of the fourth, Kai-Wei Teng escaped unscathed after some early control issues. Teng would hit Drew Romo and Sam Antonacci but would retire the next three. However, in the fifth, Teng wouldn’t be as fortunate. Chicago would extend their lead. Andrew Benintendi would walk and come around to score on a wild pitch. Chase Meidroth would bring home Braden Montgomery on an RBI double after Braden reached on a single. By the time Teng completed the inning, the White Sox had increased their lead to 5-0. Then the comeback started.
Houston would come to life in the 6th. Lamonte Wade’s RBI single started the eight-run blitz, bringing home Yordan Alvarez. That single would chase starter Davis Martin from the game, and then the flood gates would up. Bryan Hudson would come on in relief and Christian Walker would clear the bases with a double, cutting the deficit to 5-4. Cam Smith would get in on the fun with a homer to left field driving in Walker and just like that, the Astros had the lead at 6-5. Jose Altuve would bring in Pena and after a 4 pitch walk to Lamonte Wade, Alvarez would score again. All told the Astros would send 14 batters to the plate, placing 8 runs on the board.
In the 9th inning the Astros would do more damage. Taylor Trammell would be hit by a pitch, then proceed to steal both 2nd and 3rd. After a walk to Cam Smith, Christian Vazquez would bring Trammell home with a ground-rule RBI double.
The combination of Sousa, Abreu, Okert and Hader would pitch innings six thru nine in a combined scoreless relief effort.
Odds & Ends:
After a slow start in July, the Astros have now won 4 in a row and are 8-9 for the month.
Hit streaks continue for the top of the Astros order. Yordan Alvarez now has a 10-game hit streak. Jeremy Pena has posted a 6-game streak of his own.
7 total batters were hit on Friday Night between the clubs.
Hunter Brown will look to notch his second win of the year. First pitch will be 6:10 CDT. He’ll be opposed by Sean Burke.
