By any means necessary
Offense’s resilient at-bats in Game 2 prove frustrating, tiresome for White Sox pitchers
Exhaustion is among the Astros’ many specialties. There is a reason they make more contact and strike out less than any other team. They refuse to quit or be discouraged by unfavorable counts, being content to seek walks or infield ground balls when meatballs are unavailable — and to destroy opposing pitchers’ psyche.
The Astros drew six walks and four came around to score Friday as the Astros took a 2-0 series lead over the White Sox in the AL Division Series. In the 9-4 victory, Houston’s run-scoring hits included three ground-ball singles, a sacrifice fly, a two-out double and a two-run home run.
If the Astros won Thursday’s Game 1 by “stacking pennies,” as manager Dusty Baker put it, then Game 2 offered the White Sox death by a million cuts.
Houston struck three hits and drew five walks off Chicago starter Lucas Giolito, who gave up four earned runs. Even when the Astros did not end up on base, they extended their at-bats to wear Giolito down and force him off the mound in the fifth inning — a crucial victory given that Giolito tossed a three-hit complete game in his last start against the Astros.
“That’s what hitting’s all about. It’s a battle,” Baker said. “And this team grinds out at-bats. Because Gioliti, he started out the same way he did last time we faced him in Chicago. I think he had a no-hitter ’til the sixth or seventh. So you gotta grind ’em out.”
“They’re good bat to ball,” Giolito said. “Looked like they were trying to shoot the ball a few times today. It worked out for ’em. It’s just baseball. It goes that way sometimes.”
In the division series, the Astros have nine walks to 16 strikeouts and own a .375 batting average on balls in play. Of their 20 hits, 14 are singles.
On Friday, walks led to their first two runs in the second inning and set up Yuli Gurriel’s game-tying runs in the fifth. The Astros fell behind in the count 0-2 and battled back to reach base five times, including Gurriel’s at-bat in the fifth.
Every Houston starter with the exception of catcher Martín Maldonado (0-for-4 with no strikeouts) got on base at least once. Yordan Alvarez had a multiwalk game in addition to an RBI hit. Alex Bregman (2-for-3) and Kyle Tucker (2for-4) both had multihit games; Bregman drew a walk as well. The team went 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
“It’s a lineup that’s very balanced,” Gurriel said in Spanish through an interpreter. “We have a lot of guys in there that can really hit you well all the way through the lineup. I think the key for us today was hitting with runners in scoring position, which is what won the game for us.”
Giolito struck out the side on 16 pitches in the first inning, including three whiffs on his slider. Shortstop Carlos Correa said that’s when the Astros decided to change their approach from a sprint to a marathon.
“He had all three pitches working for him and there were a lot of 3-2 counts out there,” Correa said. “For me that was the key to get him out the game early, because you saw the first inning he was unhittable so we had to switch our approach a little bit, make him pitch a little more and we got to the bullpen.”
In the second inning, Alvarez recovered from down 0-2 in the count and earned a leadoff walk. With one out, Correa worked a seven-pitch walk to put two on base before Tucker drove in a run with a single through the left side. He and Correa each advanced a base on a wild pitch. Correa tagged up on Chas McCormick’s sac fly and slid home to give Houston a 2-1 lead.
By the bottom of the fifth inning, the White Sox had retaken a 4-2 lead. But McCormick’s two-out walk in the fourth inning had allowed the Astros to start at the top of the order. Jose Altuve drew a leadoff walk and Bregman got behind 0-2 but walked on seven pitches to hasten Giolito off the mound.
Against reliever Garret Crochet, Alvarez battled to full count and walked to load the bases. Gurriel took two strikes, fouled off the first 0-2 pitch and batted the next through the left side for a two-RBI single to tie the game.
“That was huge, especially because I think that was Yuli’s first hit of the series,” Baker said. “That guy was throwing some gas on Yuli. When he fouled off that slider down and in and just got a piece of it, it had new life.”
After Gurriel’s hit, the game remained tied until the bottom of the seventh.
Chicago reliever Aaron Bummer gave up singles up the middle to Altuve and Bregman, the latter of which deflected off the pitcher, to put two on with one out. Alvarez emulated their result for an RBI single, pumping his fist on his way to first base as Altuve scored.
Power prevailed for the Astros once Craig Kimbrel took the mound. Correa crushed a 3-1 fastball to center field for a double to drive in two more runs. Tucker sent a two-run homer into the Crawford Boxes. Their hits built on the frustrating foundation the Astros had laid.
“That’s one of the things they do really well. They have good strike zone understanding, so they’ll take a walk, and walks hurt us,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “Except for those twoout hits, it’s 5-4, and we’ve got a lot of, several, hard-hit balls. The one that probably crushed us is the one Yasmani (Grandal) hit to right center that Tucker caught and had a nice play on.”
Tucker’s running catch in the ninth inning served as the final out of the game and helped Houston reliever Kendall Graveman strand Chicago runners on second and third base. The White Sox collected 11 hits to the Astros’ 10 but were left six runs short of a win.
“There were a lot of things that were frustrating about that ballgame,” La Russa would later gripe.
As the Astros intended.