*Photo from The Athletic*
Houston leads series 1-0
In game one of the best of 5 ALDS, the Houston Astros gave a few lessons on playing postseason baseball to their young adversaries. Yordan Alvarez homered, Michael Brantley drove in two runs, and the Astros defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Thursday afternoon, drawing first blood in the ALDS.
Brantley said of the win that "I think we did a great job as a team overall. In the postseason, it's not about one guy for the most part. It's a team effort mostly, when we have a lineup like we do and Lance ... and the bullpen threw well today. I think that's the important key, to keep it simple and trust one another."
Despite the Astros battle tested lineup, it was Jake Meyers, making his playoff debut, who got the scoring started, lacing an RBI single in the second inning to score Alvarez and make it 1-0 Houston. In the 3rd, Jose Altuve scored on a fielders choice, and Alvarez cranked an RBI double, tripling the Astros lead to 3-0 a third of the way through the game.
One inning later, in the 4th, Brantley kept the offense rolling, singling into the right center field gap, scoring Altuve and Meyers to give the Astros a 5-0 lead. In the 5th, Alvarez came up and delivered a solo home run, with the shot to center field making it a 6-0 ballgame. In the 8th, an RBI single from Jose Abreu got the White Sox on the board with an RBI single, but that was all they could manage.
The White Sox offense couldn't muster anything against Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr, who allowed just 4 hits, walking zero hitters and striking out 4 of them across 6 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, earning a rousing ovation from the Astros home crowd in a winning effort. Phil Maton finished off the 7th for McCullers, followed by relief outings from Kendall Graveman and Ryan Pressly to seal the deal.
McCullers said of the win that "You get the ball in Game 1, and your team is expecting this from you. They're expecting you to come out, have energy, attack the zone, give them a chance to win. Obviously, our offense was spectacular today, and they did a heck of a job with a tough pitcher in Lynn, one of the best in the AL this year, and also with a really tough bullpen."
On the other side, White Sox game one starter Lance Lynn got roughed up, with the Astros tagging him for 5 runs on 6 hits and two walks, striking out 4 hitters in 3 2/3 innings, getting hit with the loss in the opening game of the playoffs. Reynaldo Lopez followed with two innings while allowing just one run, and the bullpen got scoreless outings from Garrett Crochet and Jose Ruiz.
Lynn talked about his start, saying that "It wasn't good. I wasn't making pitches when I needed to. I gave up some two-out runs on pitches that could have been better. When all is said and done, I just wasn't making the quality pitches I needed to. That's pretty much it."
Game two of the series takes place on Friday afternoon, with the White Sox turning to Lucas Giolito to try and even up the series before heading home, and the Astros sending Framber Valdez to the mound as they look to put an early chokehold on the series before hitting the road.
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