Astros 6, White Sox 5 (11): Gattis blasts Houston to victory

In the top half of the 11th, Carlos Correa struck out swinging while George Springer was attempting to steal second. Correa's follow through caused him to intervene with Alex Avila's throw and should have been called for interference, thus ending the inning. Instead, home plate umpire, Tony Randazzo didn't see it that way and Springer's stolen base stands. Next batter, Evan Gattis hits a two-run home run on a 0-2 pitch from Matt Albers, giving Houston the lead for good.

The non-call was incorrect and would be great to hear a justification on why it Randazzo didn't call interference, but the result of tonight's game shouldn't have come down to that moment.

Houston started the scoring in the second inning thanks to a Tyler Saladino error at third base. Filling in for Todd Frazier, who was out with the flu, Saladino got caught in between hops and instead of turning the inning-ending double play, it allowed Jason Castro to drive in Gattis on a single,  to make it 1-0. In the fourth inning, Tyler White hit a home run off Carlos Rodon on the 8th pitch of the at bat to make it 2-0. More on White later.

Jose Abreu would respond in the bottom half with a blast of his own to dead centerfield for his 6th homer of 2016, and cutting the deficit to 2-1.

The reigning AL Cy Young, Dallas Keuchel, started to come unglued in the fifth. With two outs, he allowed back-to-back doubles by Dioner Navarro and Tyler Saladino to tie the game. Then Adam Eaton hit a duck snort over shortstop Carlos Correa scoring Saladino and giving the White Sox a 3-2 lead.

With Carlos Rodon desperately looking for a bounceback performance, gave up the lead as White hit his second home run of the night to tie it, 3-3. Rodon would finish 6 IP 6 H 3 R 2 ER 1 BB 7 K on 108 pitches.

In the seventh, both teams had golden opportunities to take a commanding lead. With Nate Jones on the mound, Correa smashed a low liner that ricochets off Jones lower leg, who was able to make the play by underhanding the throw to Abreu for the fielders choice. However, Jones would have to leave the game and but good news; X-Rays came back negative. Zach Duke came in relief and intentionally walked Gattis to get to Colby Rasmus.

Rasmus placed a bunt down the third base line that had enough pace to stay fair and load the bases for Marwin Gonzalez. All Gonzalez could do in the next at bat is hit a high chopper that seemed to take forever to fall back to earth, but Jimmy Rollins was able to make the throw just in time to end the threat.

Then it was Chicago's turn to stir a rally. Keuchel came off the rails and lost all command on his pitches by walking Jackson and Navarro on eight straight pitches. Even though Navarro showed bunt, he wisely pulled back and took his base realizing that Keuchel was too wild. Unfortunately, Saladino did not pick up on that. After his first attempt was a stab that resulted in a foul ball, Saladino did put the ball in play on his second attempt. The problem was that it was set up perfectly for Castro to throw out Jackson at third base.

What made that bunting decision worse, is that Eaton was walked on four straight pitches, ending Keuchel's night. For those keeping score at home, that was 14 pitches by Keuchel: 12 balls, one foul bunt attempt, and one poor bunt.

With the bases loaded and one out, Ken Giles substituted Keuchel and proceeded to strike out Jimmy Rollins and Jose Abreu to end the inning. For an inning that has been quite magical to the White Sox, instead of playing for the big inning, Robin Ventura elected to play for one run.

Which, even if it did work out for Ventura to get that one run, it wouldn't be enough to support a struggling bullpen. In the eighth, Tyler White lead off with a double down the left-field line for his third extra-base hit of the night. Tony Kemp would come in to pinch run for White, and would later score on a Jose Altuve sacrifice fly to give Houston the 4-3 lead.

What seemed to be another frustrating loss after a week with several, hair pulling affairs, the White Sox mounted a comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Against closer Luke Gregerson, Austin Jackson lead it off with a double. Making the right call to try to move the runner up 90 feet to tie the game, Carlos Sanchez bunted down the third base line. Luis Valbuena fielded it cleanly, but on his throw to first, Altuve was found several feet behind first base. Just an uncharacteristic play by an all-star, a sacrifice attempt became a bunt single, and the Sox were in business with runners on the corner and no outs. Tyler Saladino picked up his second RBI with a sacrifice fly to centerfield, and it was a tie game again, 4-4.

If it weren't 50 degrees and maybe if Eaton ate his Wheaties, the game would have been over in the next at bat. Eaton sent a deep drive to left field that fell five feet short of a walk-off home run as Rasmus caught it pressed against the wall. While a great attempt to end the game, it wouldn't be the last attempt. Alex Avila singled to right field and against, the Sox had runners on the corners for the man they wanted at the plate: Jose Abreu.

And just like the seventh, Abreu failed to drive in the run. Despite hitting the home run, Abreu was 1 for 5 leaving seven men on base.

Down 6-4, Chicago would make one last rally in the bottom of the 11th. Sanchez picked up his second hit of the night singling to centerfield. After a swinging bunt by Saladino to advance Sanchez to second, Eaton smashed a double to left-center field to plate Sanchez and make it a 6-5 game. With Tony Sipp on the mound, Avila would be the last man the Sox would like to see at the plate, and he battled to a full count after starting 0-2. Alas, Sipp's curveball got Avila chasing, and the Sox lose their third straight game.

Record: 24-15 | Box Score | Play-by-Play | Highlights