HOUSTON — The Astros spent most of the regular season playing from behind, so their late rally to the American League West title should serve as a template for how they must respond after dropping Game 1 of their American League wild-card series with the Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with a 6-3 victory on Tuesday, pushing the Astros to the brink of elimination going into Game 2 on Wednesday afternoon.
Comebacks are nothing new for the Astros, who were 11 games below .500 on May 20 and six games out of first place in the AL West in early June.
“We’ve got to turn around,” said Astros manager Joe Espada. “We’ve got to get back on track here and get ready for (Wednesday).
“The message is clear: we’ve got to win (Game 2). I don’t need to tell them that. They know. Our backs have been against the corner before, and I think that’s when we are our best. When we fight back. I really admire how they bounce back, and they react to challenges.”
Right-hander Hunter Brown (6-4, 3.19 ERA) is scheduled to start Game 2 for the Astros. Brown made 20 starts this season after missing two-plus months with a shoulder injury. He closed the regular season with a flourish, going 3-1 with a 2.33 ERA and 52 strikeouts over his last 38 2/3 innings and seven starts. Brown allowed two earned runs or fewer in six of those appearances.
Brown has been particularly brilliant against the White Sox with a 6-0 record and a 2.39 ERA in six career starts. In his pair of appearances against the White Sox during the second half of this season, Brown went 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA and 14 strikeouts across 13 innings.
In eight career postseason appearances, including one start, Brown has not recorded a decision while posting a 1.65 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings.
Right-hander Sean Burke (11-7, 3.34 ERA), the White Sox’s most consistent starter this season, gets the ball on Wednesday for his postseason debut.
After allowing seven runs on eight hits and two walks while recording only four outs in a 9-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sept. 8, Burke won his final three starts while surrendering three runs (two earned) on 13 hits and six walks with 16 strikeouts over 16 1/3 innings.
Burke is 1-2 with a 5.28 ERA in three career starts against the Astros. In two starts against Houston this season, Burke went 1-1 with a 1.54 ERA and 16 strikeouts over 11 2/3 innings. That includes a 4-1 loss when Brown and Burke went head-to-head on July 25 in Chicago.
The White Sox, making their first postseason appearance since 2021, seized a 5-0 lead by the middle of the fifth inning in Game 1 to mitigate concerns about their relative inexperience. The White Sox scored in four of their first five innings to stake their claim as a viable threat to advance.
“We came here to win the series,” said White Sox manager Will Venable. “The first part of that is getting this first win, which is great. These guys believe that they can win series here in the postseason, which showed up in the way they took the field. Strike early with a couple of runs. A bunch of young guys that haven’t been in this situation before, they didn’t back down at all.
“They understand that this is a new season, and it’s really a one-game season at a time. We know we have a series; we want to go out and win the series, but it starts with just playing one game.”
–MK Bower, Field Level Media
