HOUSTON -- By just a few feet, Yoán Moncada narrowly missed out on forcing Houston to hit in the bottom of the ninth.

With runners on first and third and two outs in the top of the ninth, Moncada ripped a pitch from Hector Neris just past Houston first baseman José Abreu in foul territory. Neris got Moncada swinging two pitches later, and the White Sox dropped their second straight of this season-opening four-game series, this time in a 6-4 loss at Minute Maid Park on Saturday.

While that hard-hit line drive went from a potential game-tying hit to resulting in nothing, the Astros took advantage of some weak, well-placed contact.

“They are able to find the holes. They got hits when they needed to, and we didn’t,” said White Sox catcher Seby Zavala, who homered in the defeat. “That’s kind of why we lost.”

The Astros scored two runs on four hits against White Sox starter Lucas Giolito in the first inning, but they inflicted damage by sheer numbers more than huge impact. Jeremy Peña’s leadoff single had an exit velocity of 70.2 mph, per Statcast, followed by singles from Yordan Alvarez (82.1 mph), Kyle Tucker (89.5 mph) and Chas McCormick (62.6 mph).

Giolito allowed just one unearned run over his final four frames pitched. He departed at 97 pitches, with six strikeouts and one walk.

“He gave up those two runs early and just kept grinding, kept battling and got us five,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He did a really good job today.”

“They've got a good approach, getting the bat to the ball, found a bunch of holes on me,” Giolito said. “[I] started to lock it in a little bit more. I felt it was getting better as the outing went on. Fifth inning was definitely my best inning.”

In the fifth, Giolito struck out Alvarez, struck out Abreu -- his old teammate and friend -- for a third time and retired Kyle Tucker on a fly ball. Dylan Cease set the tone for the rotation with his Opening Day mastery, but the White Sox have to like the starting work from Cease, Lance Lynn and Giolito, even if Lynn and Giolito were disappointed not to finish six.

There’s been a great deal to like on the White Sox side in the first three games against the defending World Series champions and one of the projected best teams for the 2023 season.

Tim Anderson had two more hits Saturday, meaning he has reached base eight times. Moncada homered in his first at-bat Saturday, giving him four straight hits dating back to Friday night. Eloy Jiménez has battled at the plate, singling in the ninth to keep Saturday’s rally alive, and the White Sox have had a competitive two-strike approach throughout the three contests.

It certainly hasn’t been perfection, but Grifol, his staff and the players themselves didn’t expect such a feat this early into the season. And while a big-picture judgment can’t be made by Game 3 of 162, the White Sox early effort is a carryover from their work and focus in Spring Training.

“Obviously, the outcome is not what we want, but I like the way we played,” Grifol said. “If we play like that, we’re going to be all right. I like the way we pitched. It just comes down to the ball bounced in their direction today, really. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

“I like how we’re playing right now. It’s very early obviously,” Giolito said. “Going up against a good opponent, everybody is in the game. We’re playing hard. I like seeing guys hustle big time on defense. We’re running balls out. So if we do that, we’ll put ourselves in a good position.”

Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. made one spectacular catch to take an extra-base hit away from Tucker and made two other outstanding defensive plays to reinforce Giolito’s point. The White Sox goal ultimately is to be as good if not better than the Astros -- there are no moral victories when the goal is a championship.

For the first weekend, though, the White Sox work has given reason for optimism.

“We didn’t give up,” Grifol said. “The right guys were up at the plate, and I liked the effort. We played until the last out, and we got the winning run to the plate. It just didn’t happen.”