White Sox Fall To Astros
CHICAGO (AP) — Jose Altuve had three hits and two runs batted in, Colby Rasmus and Jason Castro each had a solo home run and the Houston Astros beat Chicago, 5-3, on Wednesday night despite the White Sox turning their second triple play of the season.
Altuve went 3-for-4 with a walk and Castro went 2-for-3 with a walk.
Jose Abreu went 2-for-4 with two RBIs for Chicago, which has dropped a season-high four straight and six of seven overall.
Doug Fister (4-3) allowed three runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings to get the win. Luke Gregerson, who had blown three of his last four save chances, got the final three outs for his ninth save.
The White Sox turned a 5-4-3 around-the-horn triple play in the eighth inning.
Mat Latos (5-1) suffered his first loss of the season, but the right-hander has been slumping for four straight starts
During that stretch, Latos has allowed 18 runs in 20 2/3 innings for an earned run average of 7.84. Opponents are batting .396 (36-for-91) with 10 walks against him in those four starts.
Altuve led off the first inning with a single to right and George Springer followed with a walk to put runners on first and second. Correa, the next batter, gave Houston a 1-0 lead with a single to right, scoring Altuve.
Latos, though, was able to avert further damage and the White Sox tied it in the bottom half of the inning on a run-scoring single by Jose Abreu. They might have had a big inning, but leadoff batter Adam Eaton was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.
The Astros reclaimed the lead in the second on a run-scoring ground out by Altuve. In the fourth, Altuve had a run-scoring single to make it 3-1.
Rasmus and Castro added solo homers in the fifth and sixth to stretch the advantage to 5-1.
Meanwhile, Fister settled down after allowing the first four Chicago batters to reach base. He retired nine straight batters at one point and didn't allow another run until Melky Cabrera tripled in the sixth, scoring Todd Frazier from first base to make it 5-2.
Abreu had another run-scoring single in the seventh to trim the Houston lead to 5-3.
Astros rookie Tony Kemp doubled in his first major-league at-bat in the second inning.
TRIPLE PLAY
In the eighth inning, after Kemp and Altuve led off with walks, Springer hit a grounder near the third-base line. Todd Frazier fielded the ball and stepped on third before throwing to second baseman Brett Lawrie, who fired to first to complete the triple play.
Chicago also completed one against Texas on April 22 in the seventh inning, an unusual 9-3-2-6-2-5 triple play.
It's the first time the White Sox have had two triple plays in a season since 2006. The last major league team to have two in a season was Philadelphia in 2007.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
