HOUSTON — Colson Montgomery slugged a home run in his postseason debut as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Houston Astros 6-3 on Tuesday in Game 1 of an American League wild-card series.
Montgomery socked 31 homers during the regular season but batted ninth in the order on Tuesday after hitting .065 with a .194 on-base percentage, a .097 slugging percentage and 34 strikeouts over his last 19 games. He broke the major league single-season record by fanning 227 times this year, but he came through on Tuesday with a fourth-inning blast that gave Chicago a 4-0 lead.
“That’s a beautiful thing about the postseason is all of the stuff that happened throughout the regular season goes out the window,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “It’s about just helping your team win. Colson obviously put a great swing on that ball — not many guys go out there to center field. Big swing by Colson to get us that extra run.”
Braden Montgomery, Randal Grichuk and Chase Meidroth recorded multi-hit games for the White Sox, who will try to sweep the best-of-three series on Wednesday in Houston. Chicago last won a postseason series when it swept the Astros in the 2005 World Series.
Both teams utilized openers in Game 1. The ensuing results were vastly different.
Astros rookie right-hander AJ Blubaugh (0-1) did not survive the top of the first inning. He walked Sam Antonacci, Miguel Vargas and Andrew Benintendi in the frame, with Antonacci scoring via a Munetaka Murakami sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead. Astros left-hander Bryan King replaced Blubaugh after the Benintendi walk and struck out Tristan Peters to limit the damage, but the White Sox continued their momentum in the second when the first five batters reached.
After allowing hits to Braden Montgomery and Meidroth, King hit Colson Montgomery with a pitch to load the bases. Antonacci then stroked a two-run single, building the lead to 3-0.
Astros manager Joe Espada said of Blubaugh and King combining to allow three runs (two earned) on four hits and three walks while recording only three outs, “It puts you in a tough spot, for sure. You start counting the outs, and it just really puts you in a tough spot.”
White Sox rookie left-hander Hagen Smith, meanwhile, worked three scoreless innings in his second career start overall and first in the postseason. He worked around Isaac Paredes’ two-out single in the bottom of the first, and after retiring the Astros in order in the second, stranded Cam Smith on third after Smith opened the frame with an opposite-field single to right.
Colson Montgomery led off the fourth with a 432-foot blast to straightaway center off Astros right-hander Miguel Ullola.
Murakami walked and scored when Meidroth delivered a bases-loaded single in the fifth for a 5-0 lead. Murakami singled and later scored on a wild pitch in the seventh.
Nelson Velazquez smacked a pinch-hit, two-run homer off Chicago left-hander Sean Newcomb in the fifth. Jeremy Pena scored on a two-out throwing error by Vargas in the eighth.
“We want to keep the game close, and we’re a couple hits away from getting back in that game, so I thought we battled back after the first two innings,” Espada said.
White Sox right-hander Grant Taylor closed it out, throwing 54 pitches over 2 1/3 innings. He gave up one run, which was unearned. Jordan Hicks (1-0), the second of five Chicago pitchers, earned the win after tossing 1 1/3 shutout innings.
–MK Bower, Field Level Media
