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| James McCann |
With the victory, the Sox took two out of three in the series and won the season series from the American League West-leading Astros, 4 games to 3.
So much for my concern about the Sox pitching staff needing to cover 27 innings in about 24 hours against a powerful Houston offense.
The Sox caught a break in the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader, when Houston pitcher and Cy Young candidate Gerrit Cole could not make his start after straining his hamstring warming up in the bullpen.
To the Sox's credit, they took advantage and won that game, with their own starting pitcher (Ivan Nova) tossing a complete game. It is always a boost for a team when a pitcher steps up and throws all nine innings of a game on a day where you're playing a doubleheader. Bullpen saved.
Here's a look back at the Sox's surprising and satisfying series win:
Tuesday, Aug. 13
Astros 6, White Sox 2 (Game 1): It was a mixed bag for Sox starter Dylan Cease, who threw a quality start. He worked six innings, allowing four runs (only two earned) against a good team, and when he left the mound after facing one hitter in the seventh inning, the Sox were only down 3-2. He absolutely gave his team a chance to win.
And the third and fourth (unearned) runs on his tab were both the fault of catcher Welington Castillo, who had three passed balls, two of which allowed runs to score.
On the down side, Cease (2-5) walked five and struck out two, and you can only pitch around walks for so long until the opposition scores runs. I don't think Cease had the fairest strike zone from the home plate umpire, and he got no help from his catcher, but he can pitch better.
The Sox managed only two runs off Houston's Zack Greinke (12-4), who pitched six innings to earn the win.
Tuesday, Aug. 13
White Sox 4, Astros 1 (Game 2): Nova was the story. He needed only 104 pitches to complete the game. He allowed four hits, all singles, and did not walk a batter. He retired 17 of the last 18 men he faced in a game that took two hours, 21 minutes to play.
Over his past four starts, Nova (8-9) is 4-0 with a 0.49 ERA. Obviously, regression is coming, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy this Nova hot streak while it lasts and pray management doesn't reward him with a multiyear contract extension. This was his best start in a Sox uniform, bar none.
As mentioned, Cole was unable to make his start, and the Sox victimized emergency Houston starter Chris Devenski (1-2) for three runs in the bottom of the second inning. All the runs came with two outs, one on a single by Adam Engel and two more on a single by Ryan Goins.
The Sox added a fourth run in the fourth on a two-out RBI double by Ryan Cordell. Nova took it from there, and it was nice to see the Sox come through with some two-out hitting.
Wednesday, Aug. 14
White Sox 13, Astros 9: Speaking of two-out hitting, McCann was down 0-2 in the count when he drove a slider from Ryan Pressly into the right-field bullpen for a grand slam that broke a 9-9 tie in the eighth inning.
Pressly (2-3) is one of the Astros' better relievers. He entered the day with a 1.94 ERA, but he gave up singles to Yolmer Sanchez and Tim Anderson, and walked Jose Abreu, ahead of the big hit by McCann.
It is good to see the Sox catcher using right field again, something he wasn't doing throughout a monthlong slump in July.
This was a wild, back-and-forth game. Houston was up 2-0. The Sox went ahead 4-2. Houston tied it at 4. The Sox went ahead 7-4, and then 8-5. The Astros made it 8-7. Then Eloy Jimenez homered for the Sox to make it 9-7. Jose Altuve answered with a two-run blast to tie it for the Astros.
But the last big hit of the day went to McCann. For a change, the Sox hitters picked up the relief pitchers, who struggled in this game. Jimmy Cordero, Aaron Bummer and Evan Marshall combined to give up five runs over 2.2 innings.
But Alex Colome (4-2) got five outs for the win. He extricated the Sox from a bases-loaded situation in the eighth, and then worked a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts to close it out.
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