The 2021 Chicago White Sox came into the season hoping to make a return to October glory, but their season came to an unceremonious end on Tuesday, as they fell to the Houston Astros in Game 4 of the American League Division Series.
The White Sox have not won a postseason series in 16 years, and the Astros have now advanced to the American League Championship Series in each of the last five seasons.
Jose Altuve scored four runs and blasted a three-run homer in the victory for Houston. Michael Brantley, Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa each drove in two RBI’s apiece to help send the Astros to the American League Championship Series.
The White Sox scored their lone run of the game on a solo home run by Gavin Sheets in the bottom of the second inning.
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Starting pitcher Carlos Rodon was pulled from the game in the second inning, and was charged with a pair of earned runs while striking out three batters and walking two. Michael Kopech was charged with three earned runs in less than an inning of work.
The White Sox scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning, with Sheets hitting a home run off the top of the center field fence. Houston outfielder Jake Meyers was injured on the play, and was forced to come out of the game.
The Astros quickly responded, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the third inning on an RBI double by Correa, as he smashed a double down the left field line on Rodon’s final pitch of the afternoon.
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In the top of the fourth, Kopech gave up an RBI single to Martin Maldonado to put the Astros up 3-1, then Bregman hit an RBI double off of Garrett Crochet to make it a 5-1 game.
The Astros kept pouring it on in the sixth, with Brantley hitting an RBI single off of Aaron Bummer, and Brantley came through again in the seventh, hitting an RBI single off of Craig Kimbrel in the eighth to give Houston a 7-1 lead.
Altuve added insult to injury in the ninth inning, launching a two-out, three-run homer off of White Sox closer Liam Hendriks to put Houston in front by a 10-1 margin.
Houston will take on the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, which will get underway Friday at Minute Maid Park.
