Geovany Soto hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning, leading Jose Quintana and the Chicago White Sox over Houston 4-1 Wednesday night and handing the Astros their seventh straight loss.
George Springer went 5 for 5 for AL West-leading Houston. Astros starter Vincent Velasquez made his major league debut, pitching three-hit ball for five scoreless innings.
Jose Abreu and Adam LaRoche also homered for Chicago.
Quintana and Velasquez combined for the third pitchers' duel of the series. Quintana (3-6) earned his first win since May 13, allowing one run and six hits in seven innings.
David Robertson got his 13th save in 16 tries as the White Sox completed a three-game sweep.
Soto's home run came off Tony Sipp (2-3). Abreu added a two-run shot in the eighth off Pat Neshek.
Velasquez struck out five, walked four and threw 89 pitches. The 23-year-old righty exited with a 1-0 lead, but LaRoche tied the game in the sixth with his homer off Will Harris.
Chicago Baseball
Velasquez was recalled from Double-A Corpus Christi earlier Wednesday, and his debut was the second for a highly touted Houston prospect in three days, following Carlos Correa's first game Monday. Correa, who had driven in Houston's only three runs of the series before Wednesday, was 1 for 4.
Besides Springer, Houston batters did little. They had only seven hits and scored two runs or fewer for the sixth time in their seven losses.
Houston went ahead 1-0 in the second on Jake Marisnick's sacrifice fly.
An inning after LaRoche's eighth home run of the season, Houston's Preston Tucker might have been denied a homer. Left fielder Melky Cabrera reached up at the wall to grab Tucker's fly ball for the second out of the inning.
