Astros stymied in Odorizzi's short start

CHICAGO -- The Astros came into Saturday hot off a win over the White Sox on Friday that kept Houston undefeated against Chicago this season. Through five games, the Astros had picked up five wins, outscored the White Sox by 25 runs and just gotten Lance McCullers Jr.’s best outing of the season to earn that fifth straight victory.

Perhaps Houston was due for a loss to Chicago on Saturday, but no one could have expected it to look quite like it did.

In a reversal of roles from Friday, Jake Odorizzi couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning Saturday, while White Sox starter Lucas Giolito threw a complete game as the Astros fell, 10-1, at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“I guess it was their night,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said.

The game started well enough with Michael Brantley doubling in the top of the first, making him 8-for-21 with five extra-base hits against Chicago this season up to that point. But until Abraham Toro hit a solo homer off Giolito in the top of the eighth, the bats were stymied. After Brantley’s double, 22 straight consecutive Astros hitters were retired, including eight on strikeouts.

Against Giolito, Houston put 22 balls in play -- only seven of them had expected batting averages above .100. And of those seven that actually had a chance of going for base hits, the Astros only mustered up a ninth-inning single to center by Jose Altuve in addition to Brantley’s double and Toro’s homer.

“[Giolito] was doing a good job attacking the zone,” Toro said. “His heater, he was doing a good [job] of throwing it up, and his offspeed, it was down. It was just a mix of up and down, and I thought we could have been a little more aggressive.”

“He was in the windup all night, and we only had him in the stretch a couple times,” Baker said. “He was getting the ball and he was rushing us. He had his tempo up, had his timing together. He threw the ball well tonight. Threw the ball very well.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Odorizzi struggled with his command from the start.

Odorizzi got out of a two-on, no-out jam in the second thanks in part to an ill-advised tag up attempt from first by White Sox second baseman Leury García, who was thrown out at second by Myles Straw after an Andrew Vaughn flyout. Odorizzi escaped that threat after an inning-ending groundout, but he couldn’t solve those command issues.

The following inning, he left a splitter and a slider away but up in the zone to Chicago hitters Zack Collins and Tim Anderson, respectively, on consecutive pitches. Both times, Odorizzi watched the ball sail over the wall for solo home runs.

“Just one to chalk up, kind of forget about,” Odorizzi said. “I'm not really too worried about it. I've had games like this quite a few times in my career, and I learn from them, take the good from it, move on and next start’s a brand new one.”

The bullpen didn’t fare much better when Odorizzi’s day ended in the fourth. Brandon Bielak, Joe Smith and Austin Pruitt (in his Houston debut) came out of the bullpen in relief against the White Sox, and each of them proceeded to give up long balls to Chicago hitters.

“Credit to [Chicago] for having a good approach, staying within the approach and then hitting the ball the other way,” Odorizzi said. “It takes a really disciplined team to continue to sit and look, try to go the other way with things, but we saw it kind of consistently tonight out of them.”

The Astros are still among the best teams in baseball and hold a 43-23 record against teams with .500 or better records. But Houston now heads into Sunday’s rubber match cold after this tough loss.