'Aggressive' bats stay hot to top Lynn, Sox

When Astros third baseman Robel García came through with a bases-loaded double off the right-field wall in the third inning Saturday, it solidified Houston as the best offense White Sox starter Lance Lynn has faced so far in 2021.

No team had scored more than three runs off Lynn through his first 12 starts of the season. With one mighty swing, García provided the Astros their third, fourth and fifth runs of the game, highlighting the 7-3 win over the White Sox at Minute Maid Park.

“They're a great team. We knew that coming in,” designated hitter Michael Brantley said. “[But] this is our home stadium. We’ve got the fans behind us. It's always nice playing in front of your home fans, but we’ve got to continue to keep playing good baseball one day at a time.”

The Astros came into the game already swinging the bats at a high level, as they led the Majors in runs (384), hits (653), average (.274), and OPS (.794). And despite being up against one of its toughest matchups yet in Lynn, Houston seemed to have no issues getting to the American League Cy Young candidate.

In their past three matchups with the right-hander, the Astros have scored 22 runs (20 earned) in 15 2/3 innings. Those three games are also the only three times Lynn has allowed four or more earned runs since 2019.

“He's a good pitcher, because he comes at you. He doesn't run from too many people, and he doesn't have to,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “He's very aggressive, [but] we have an aggressive team.”

On an individual level, most of the same Houston hitters who have had success at the plate versus Lynn continued the trend in Saturday's contest.

Jose Altuve -- batting .355 with two home runs against Lynn -- started the bottom of the first with a single, reaching second base on a throwing error and scoring on a wild pitch. In the third, his double down the left-field line kicked off the four-run inning. Brantley (.348 lifetime versus Lynn) knocked in Altuve for the go-ahead run in the third with a grounder through the right side. Yordan Alvarez (.444 in nine career at-bats against the righty) moved Brantley to second two batters later with a single.

Once Carlos Correa drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases, García stepped to the plate with a chance to avenge his strikeout in the second inning.

García said he was looking for Lynn to throw him a fastball, considering Lynn came in throwing his four-seamer on 43.3 percent of his pitches. On a full count, García got his fastball up in the zone and cleared the bases with a drive off the wall in right.

“It's a guy that we know likes to throw a lot of fastballs, and even though he punched me out the first time around, I knew going back up there that he's probably gonna throw me a lot of fastballs in a second at-bat,” García said through a team translator. “I went up there looking for it, and I was able to make good contact with it.”

In the fourth, Brantley put the bow on Houston’s beatdown of Lynn, driving in Myles Straw with a double that ultimately ended Lynn’s night early. And when the White Sox rallied to close the gap to three, Correa capped off the night with an opposite-field solo home run in the bottom of the eighth.

The win is Houston’s 15th in its last 19 games and marks only the second time all season Chicago has lost three games in a row. The Astros now have a chance to complete the four-game sweep of the American League Central leaders on Sunday.

“They're a good team. They're a quality team,” Baker said. “But we're getting the lead first and then adding onto that. This is not a team that you'd want to play every day, because they're a very good team.”