Astros' big bats fail to come through as White Sox put finishing touches on wild-card sweep

The stage was set for the Houston Astros to once again overcome their deficiencies on the mound with their stars in the batter's box.

For the second day in a row, the Astros put themselves in an early hole against the Chicago White Sox in their American League wild-card series. In Game 1, it was rookie reliever AJ Blubaugh who imploded as the opening act of a wayward bullpen game , recording two outs and walking three before being replaced. Facing elimination on Wednesday in Game 2, it was Houston's best pitcher, right-hander Hunter Brown, who couldn't finish the first frame . He surrendered five hits and a walk to No. 9 hitter Colson Montgomery before manager Joe Espada trudged to the mound in a most unwelcome case of deja vu.

The deficit in Game 1 was 1-0 after the first inning. Game 2 was 4-0 White Sox before the Astros picked up the bats. But a trio of solo homers from Jeremy Peña , Cam Smith and Jose Altuve got the Astros back within one in a relative blink. And in the bottom of the fifth inning — having kept Chicago's bats quiet since the first — the Astros had something cooking against the White Sox bullpen.

The Astros had pushed White Sox starter Sean Burke 's pitch count up to 72 through four innings of work, prompting manager Will Venable to turn to right-hander Huascar Brazobán to begin the fifth inning, with the top of Houston's lineup looming. Brazobán allowed two of the first three batters he faced to reach base, bringing AL MVP favorite Yordan Alvarez to the plate with runners on first and second and just one out. Venable then summoned lefty Anthony Kay to face Alvarez, who went 1-for-4 in Game 1 and struck out against Burke in his first two at-bats of Game 2.

This was not only Alvarez's chance to make his mark on this series but also the familiar escape hatch the Astros had accessed all season. Their unreliable pitching staff — injury-ravaged but also ill-equipped to begin with — regularly required Houston's bats to bail them out. The Astros ranked 24th in MLB in ERA (4.45) but first in home runs (226), with Alvarez's 42 long balls leading the way. Time and again, Alvarez delivered, staying healthy for a career-high 158 games en route to humongous production unmatched by any other hitter in 2026. This season represented the long-awaited regular-season masterpiece to complement his collection of iconic postseason moments. And as he stepped in against Kay, Alvarez looked primed to add another.

Not this time. Even after falling down 3-0, Kay executed a perfect fastball on the outer half to nab strike one looking. On the next pitch — another fastball away — Alvarez connected cleanly but lined out to left fielder Sam Antonacci for a gigantic second out.

Up came Isaac Paredes , a crucial cog behind Alvarez in the lineup, also capable of tying the game or seizing the lead with one swing. The threat Paredes posed proved substantial; he walked on four straight pitches, none near the strike zone. That loaded the bases for Altuve, who three innings earlier had smashed his 28th career postseason home run , putting him just one behind Manny Ramirez on the all-time leaderboard.

Altuve has been supplying seismic swings to the delight of the Houston home crowd for years. Even as his regular-season output has declined, more magic has always seemed to await in the playoffs. So here he was again, at the plate in the postseason for the 491st time, more than all but four hitters in MLB history. Surely he had another moment in him, one more run-scoring swing that could keep Houston's season alive for another day.

Nope. Altuve watched a sinker from Kay right down the middle for strike one, then swung at a changeup and lofted a harmless fly ball to right fielder Braden Montgomery for the third out, stranding the bases loaded and leaving the Astros trailing by one.

All year, Houston's slug-happy lineup led by a game-changer in Alvarez and a handful of accomplished hitters beyond him had been able to compensate for its shoddy run prevention. This lopsided recipe was good enough to win a historically weak AL West . But this week against the White Sox, it fell considerably short. After Altuve's flyout in the fifth, Houston mustered one baserunner over the remaining four innings.

Once that Astros rally was squashed, the White Sox could start to taste their first postseason series victory in more than two decades. Not since 2005 had this franchise popped bottles after advancing in the playoffs, and that year featured no shortage of champagne celebrations. A dominant run through October ended with a World Series title, won against these same Astros in Houston.

But now it's time for a new generation of ballplayers to make some postseason memories for the South Siders. And in the top of the sixth inning, second baseman Chase Meidroth put the finishing touches on Chicago's two-game sweep. Facing Astros reliever Bryan Abreu with two runners on, Meidroth torched a hanging 3-1 slider over the high wall in left-center field for a three-run homer and a 7-3 Sox lead, a score that would hold to the finish.

This defeat — the end of the line for this uninspiring iteration of the Astros — marked Houston's ninth consecutive postseason loss at Daikin (formerly Minute Maid) Park. The franchise's most recent home triumph came in Game 1 of the 2023 ALDS against Minnesota . Since Kyle Tucker caught the final out of Game 6 to win the 2022 World Series in Houston, the Astros have watched three different teams celebrate postseason series victories on their turf: the Rangers in the 2023 ALCS, the Tigers in the 2024 wild-card series and now the White Sox in 2026.

For Houston, the World Series window that Altuve and Alvarez have propped up for so long appears to finally be closing after a decade of dominance and excellence atop the American League.

And the White Sox, having improbably catapulted from the depths of a rebuild into contention, might just be entering an exciting new era for the franchise. They'll head to Cleveland to take on the AL Central rival Guardians in the ALDS starting Saturday.