Considering the motley cast of pitchers the Astros sent to the mound tonight, you’d think this game was a scheduled loss. But why not? With the pitchers the Astros have available, scheduled losses are built into the schedule of the 2026 .500ish Astros
But maybe it was good that Astros pitching was so poor tonight, because even Bob Gibson would have taken a loss on a night when the offense barely threatened to score. And at least we won’t see Ronel Blanco, Kai Wei Teng, or Tatsuya Imai on the mound tomorrow night.
Blanco was added to the everyday roster on this day, September the first, to start today’s game, and somehow managed to keep the punchless Astros in the game despite himself.
He got through four scoreless innings while allowing three hits and three walks. It took him 88 pitches, only 51 of which were strikes, and he was helped by an outfield assist at third to keep the Sox at bay. He stranded four runners in the first two innings, and by the time he settled down, he was out of gas.
In the fifth inning, the Astros brought in another shuttlebug between AAA and the majors, Kai Wei Teng, who promptly gave the White Sox three runs on a hit-by-pitch, a walk, a single, and a double.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old White Sox starter Sean Burke mowed down the Astros’ lineup for 5.2 innings, allowing only one hit, although teasing the Astros with four free passes.
The man otherwise known as The-Guy-That-Got-Dana-Brown-Fired, Tatsuya Imai, gave away two more runs in the sixth. It would have been worse if right-fielder Cam Smith hadn’t done his Wilt the Stilt imitation and robbed Tristan Peters of a two-run homer.
Like Blanco before him, Imai eventually settled down, completing the eighth and ninth innings without allowing a run, striking out five. But it didn’t matter. With the only Astros run an eighth-inning solo homer by Isaac Paredes, five runs easily took game 2 of this series.
Tomorrow’s pitching matchup for the Astros looks more promising. Hayden Wesneski goes against “to be determined.” Hopefully the Stros can protect their one-game lead over the Rangers in the AL West by taking the next two games of the four-game series.
