Slamming the door on a promising start
Cole unable to preserve lead; Tilson delivers in grand way for Chicago
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck made pregame on-field appearances. The Astros hit into four double plays and a triple play. The Chicago White Sox hit into an 8-6-3 double play and homered four times, including a grand slam.
It was, in summation, a slightly loony night for the Astros in a 9-4 loss Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park — their first loss to the White Sox after nine straight wins dating to last year and only their fifth in 23 home games this season.
White Sox starter Ivan Nova (3-4) was touched up for three runs in the fourth inning to squander a two-run cushion, but Chicago struck back with six in the sixth, including a grand slam by right fielder Charlie Tilson for his first major league home run.
Astros starter Gerrit Cole (4-5), meanwhile, was ineffective after a run of four strong starts, allowing two early solo homers and four consecutive hits to begin the sixth. He gave way to righthander Josh James, who served up the Tilson slam.
Cole said both homers he allowed by Eloy Jimenez in the second and Jose Abreu in the fourth, and two hits in the sixth all came on sliders.
“It wasn’t biting, especially when I needed it,” Cole said. “I wasn’t synched up enough on my delivery, and I was off a little bit in my conviction and some of the pitches I was throwing.
After the cartoon characters appeared on the field during pregame, things went south early for the Astros. They had baserunners against Nova in each of the first three innings
but grounded into two double plays and the 10th triple play in franchise history.
Michael Brantley was the culprit in the first inning and Tyler White in the second. And then came the third. Tony Kemp led off with a double into the right-field corner, and Robinson Chirinos was hit by a pitch before Jake Marisnick smoked a 96.8 mph grounder down the third-base line to Yoan Moncada, who was playing close to the line.
Moncada tagged the bag for the force on Kemp and threw to second to get the force on Chirinos. Second baseman Yolmer Sanchez’s throw to first beat the speedy Marisnick for the triple play.
“That (the triple play) should have been a sign of bad things to come from that perspective,” said Astros manager A.J. Hinch. “It takes a perfect alignment of the stars, so it was not our night in those plays.”
It was the first triple play induced from the Astros’ offense since April 19, 2018, when Evan Gattis grounded into a double play, apparently forgot how many outs there were and left the first-base bag and was out to complete the triple play.
While Nova had the Astros beating the baseball into the ground and was staked to a 2-0 lead on the Jimenez and Abreu homers, Houston took the lead in the fifth on the strength of an Alex Bregman homer, an oppositefield RBI double by Carlos Correa and an Aldemys Diaz sacrifice fly.
But then came the sixth, when the White Sox chased Cole with four consecutive hits in the sixth en route to six runs.
Moncada’s RBI single and James McCann’s run-scoring double gave Chicago the lead and brought on James, who had stranded a dozen inherited runners dating to September 2018.
That string, however, ended with a bang. James had a walk and a bases-loaded forceout at home before delivering a 98 mph fastball to Tilson, who hit it 404 feet to right.
The White Sox added another run in the eighth on Jimenez’s second homer of the night, this one off former Astros draft choice Brady Rodgers, who was called up this week to take the injured Collin McHugh’s roster spot and made his first major league appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2017.
Nova, meanwhile, kept on dealing, inducing double plays in the sixth and seventh by Diaz and Marisnick, respectively.
“Nova keeps the ball on the ground, and we didn’t do a good job getting the ball in the air against him,” Hinch said. “His changeup was pretty good. His sinker was pretty good. We did a good job getting guys on base, but (double plays) are called rally killers for a reason.”
Marisnick, however, had one moment to remember in the fifth. With one out and Tim Anderson at first after a leadoff hit, Yolmer Sanchez drove a Cole slider 389 feet to the screen in front of the White Sox bullpen in left-center.
Marisnick raced to his right to make the catch, collided with the wall and fired a relay to Correa, who caught Anderson retreating to first to complete the double play.
“I had a chance to peek and see where the wall was and thought I had enough room and was able to get to it,” Marisnick said. “I got it to (Correa), and he is the best in the league at putting throws on the money.”
Cole was charged with six runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts. Nova scattered 10 hits through seven-plus innings before giving way to lefthander Josh Osich, who allowed two hits in a scoreless eighth.
The Astros loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against righthander Thyago Vieira with a walk to Kemp and singles by Chirinos and Marisnick.
Vierira was replaced by closer Alex Colome, who gave up a run on a Josh Reddick sacrifice fly to the warning track in center but got Bregman on an infield popup to end the game.