White Sox drop another series, lose 4-3 to Astros

AP Photos

Entering his outing against the Astros, Lucas Giolito had been very strong over his prior four starts.

He wasn’t quite as good Sunday.

Giolito went six innings and allowed four runs and the Astros beat the White Sox 4-3. The Sox starter had compiled a 2.33 ERA over his last four appearances but didn’t replicate that, and the Sox lost the series and fell back to 14 games below .500.

While the Sox keep staggering, Luis Robert Jr.’s strong May continued. His fourth-inning solo homer off Houston’s Hunter Brown was his fifth of the month and 11th of the season, and he added a double in the sixth. Robert scored two batters later when Jake Burger, activated off the injured list earlier Sunday, homered to left.

The Burger homer, however, didn’t get Giolito off the hook.

The Astros jumped on Giolito early, getting three first-inning runs. After Mauricio Dubon and Alex Bregman singled to start the game. Yordan Alvarez doubled in both and advanced to third on a Tim Anderson throwing error. Alvarez subsequently scored on a Kyle Tucker sacrifice fly to right.  

Giolito had issues again to lead off the fourth. On a 2-1 count, Giolito hung a changeup right in the middle of the zone and Yainer Diaz capitalized for his first career homer to give the Astros a 4-0 lead, sending the ball 424 feet with an exit velocity of 109.8 mph.

The Sox cut into the lead in the bottom of that inning when Robert hit a 1-0 Brown slider 409 feet to left, trimming the Astros’ advantage to 4-1 and giving him a homer in three straight games. Burger’s homer ended the day for Brown, who struck out eight.

Both the Sox and Astros had issues complying with the pitch clock, or perhaps the interpretation of home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater. Anderson and Houston second baseman David Hensley were dinged once, Reynaldo Lopez was cited once and Giolito was docked twice.