LITTLE TO LIKE
Almost nothing goes right in a 10-1 loss to the White Sox.
CHICAGO — The Astros are not built to be blown out. Their lineup should afford them a chance against almost anyone. All six starting pitchers are capable of dominance but more often settle around above average, shielding the shaky bullpen. Their exploits against the sport’s elite are well-told.
The Astros awoke on Saturday with a major-league high .662 winning percentage against teams above .500. They’d beaten the White Sox five straight times. A sixth encounter illustrated the trouble with sustaining such an incredible pace. The White Sox delivered the most savage beating of their season. On paper, the 10-1 loss is not the Astros’ most lopsided this season. Few have felt more embarrassing.
“I guess it was their night,” manager Dusty Baker said. “We’ve beaten them five in a row.”
They did nothing right for nine innings. Chicago hit five home runs and ravaged Houston’s pitching staff. White Sox starter Lucas Giolito ground the Astros’ potent lineup to pieces. Michael Brantley doubled on the eighth pitch Giolito threw. He retired the next 22 Houston hitters he saw.
Abraham Toro’s solo home run in the eighth stopped the dominance and spoiled his bid for a shutout. Giolito settled for a complete game. He yielded three hits and did not issue a walk.
“He was doing a good job of just attacking the zone,” Toro said. “He was throwing his heater up and offspeed down. It was a mix of up and down. I thought we could have been a little more aggressive, but we’ll get him next time.”
Only Gerrit Cole has stymied this lineup with the ease Giolito showed. Cole needed 129 pitches to toss a three-hit shutout earlier this month at Minute Maid Park. Giolito got his gem on 107. He struck out only eight, thriving instead on weak contact and marvelous command. Seventyeight of his 107 pitches were strikes.
“He started out by not walking people,” Baker said. “He was in the windup all night and we only had him in the stretch a couple times. He was getting the ball and he was rushing us. He had his tempo up. Had his timing together.
He threw the ball well tonight. He threw the ball very well.”
Two terrible outings mar an otherwise marvelous season for Chicago’s 27year-old righthander. Giolito gathered 12 starts with three earned runs or fewer before Saturday’s game. He allowed seven earned runs in one inning against the
Boston Red Sox on April 19 and surrendered six earned in five frames against the Detroit Tigers on the Fourth of July. The carnage left his ERA at 4.15. The Astros lowered it to 3.90.
Giolito’s opponent could not finish the fourth inning. Jake Odorizzi collected 10 outs. He needed 75
pitches to procure them. Only 39 were strikes, and he generated just six swings and misses. Five arrived on his four-seam fastball. Odorizzi threw 31 secondary pitches that produced one whiff.
Odorizzi walked a season-high four batters, battling awful command of both his four-seam fastball
and splitter. No feel for his two most important pitches set a foreboding tone from which Odorizzi never recovered. He allowed four earned runs and finished 31⁄3 innings.
The five pitchers who followed went according to the Astros’ bullpen script for so much of this season. Three relievers teamed to yield six runs. Brandon Bielak, Joe Smith and Austin Pruitt allowed towering home runs. Jake Burger’s blast against Pruitt in the seventh landed 456 feet away in the left-field seats. Burger had no major league home runs entering the game.
Comical Chicago baserunning spared Odorizzi from an earlier exit. Brian Goodwin started the second with a single against the shift. Leury Garcia worked a walk. Andrew Vaughn lifted a deep fly ball to Myles Straw, who corralled it at the warning track. Goodwin tagged up to third base. For some reason, Garcia took off for second. Straw threw him out by 15 feet.
Odorizzi could not turn the gaffe into anything tangible. The White Sox struck six hits against him, and four went the other way. Odorizzi yielded oppositefield solo home runs to Zack Collins and Tim Anderson on consecutive pitches during the third. Collins hammered a hanging splitter into the second row of left-field seats. Anderson deposited a dismal slider six feet over the wall in right.
“They were a little more up (in the strike zone),” Odorizzi said of the two home run pitches. “Location-wise, from side to side, they got to corners, but when they’re a little more up than at the bottom of the zone, they’re easier for guys to get to … The location was OK, but the height was the issue. It has to be a better executed pitch.”
Vaughn flew out to left field to start the fourth. Gavin Sheets and Burger boomed consecutive doubles to continue Odorizzi’s awful evening. He lost ninehole hitting catcher Zack Collins on a full-count fourseamer after getting ahead of him 0-2, turning the lineup over to Anderson.
The Astros deployed their usual shift against Anderson, a contact-crazy leadoff man who can catalyze Chicago’s order. Odorizzi offered a first-pitch fastball. Anderson hit it against the defense. Burger scored. Odorizzi craned his head and stared toward the sky. Baker left the dugout to end Odorizzi’s night.