Shane Smith produced the fourth quality start of his rookie season while Luis Robert Jr. belted his first home run in five weeks as the visiting Chicago White Sox claimed a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros on Tuesday in the opener of their three-game series.
Smith (3-3), who dropped his ERA to 2.37, matched his career high of six innings by routinely wiggling free of danger. He induced inning-ending double plays in the second, fourth and sixth while stranding five baserunners to extend his run of exceptional pitching. Smith has allowed three or fewer earned runs in all 13 starts this season, including seven appearances with one or no earned runs.
The White Sox spotted Smith a 3-0 lead in the third when Edgar Quero smacked a two-run, two-out single to left field off Astros right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. (1-2) that scored Mike Tauchman and Chase Meidroth. Before Quero drilled his opposite-field hit, McCullers appeared primed to escape a bases-loaded jam unscathed after inducing Miguel Vargas to pop up for the second out.
Robert supplied the White Sox with a 1-0 lead in the second with his two-out double to right that scored Kyle Teel. When he faced McCullers a second time leading off the fourth, Robert bashed a 1-0 changeup into the left-field seats for his sixth homer of the season and first since May 2 in a 7-3 win over the Astros. Robert sat out three games last week to focus on special sessions with Ryan Fuller, the team’s director of hitting.
McCullers labored throughout with his control. He allowed four runs on four hits and four walks with six strikeouts over five innings. Of his 96 pitches, only 51 were strikes as McCullers leaned heavily on his off-speed stuff with 42 sliders and 14 knuckle-curves.
Smith, meanwhile, allowed seven hits and issued two walks while recording four strikeouts. He surrendered a sacrifice fly to Isaac Paredes in the third inning that drove home Cam Smith, who reached on a leadoff single.
The Astros loaded the bases with no outs against White Sox reliever Steven Wilson in the eighth, but they managed only a Yainer Diaz sacrifice fly that drove in Jeremy Pena. Wilson struck out Christian Walker and retired Jake Meyers on a fly to Robert in center to snuff the threat.
–Field Level Media
