Two division leaders, one swing that mattered
Houston beat the Chicago White Sox 6-3 on Monday night in the opener of a series that pitted the American League West leader against the leader of the Central. Nelson Velazquez provided the swing that decided it, a two-run homer measured at 415 feet that cleared the wall in left and landed on the train tracks beyond it.
The sequence started with two outs. Cam Smith tripled, Velazquez followed, and a game Houston had been chasing became a game Houston led 3-2. Smith was not finished. In the fifth, with the Astros a run ahead and one out gone, Chicago starter Anthony Kay walked Christian Walker with the bases loaded to force in a fourth run. Trevor Richards came on with two down and Smith doubled to left, scoring two more for 6-2.
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Lambert survives a messy night
Peter Lambert was not sharp and it barely cost Houston. The right-hander gave up three hits and two runs across four and two-thirds innings while tying his career high with five walks, a line that usually invites trouble against a lineup with power. Chicago found some of it in the seventh, when Colson Montgomery pulled his 29th home run of the year to cut the gap to 6-3, but the bullpen closed the door from there. Bryan Abreu recorded the final three outs for his eighth save.
Montgomery’s total is worth pausing on. Twenty-nine home runs in a season places him among the better power years a White Sox hitter has produced this decade, and it has come while the club chases a division title rather than a rebuild timeline.
The standings picture
This was a fourth win in five games for the Astros, who stay two clear of Texas at the top of the West. Two games is not comfort in early September. Houston have spent much of the summer inside that margin, and the schedule now hands them a stretch against opponents in the same position.
Chicago drop the opener but keep their lead in the Central. Two more meetings follow before either side finds out what the series was worth.
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