Yordan Alvarez beat the White Sox shift with a grounder to third base in the fifth inning Friday. When they didn’t put a shift on Alvarez in the seventh, he hit a sharp grounder up the middle. In the bottom of the ninth, it didn’t matter where the infielders were standing.
With a runner on first, Alvarez lined a double to the corner in right field, driving in the game-winning run as Houston took a 2-1 win over Chicago at Minute Maid Park.
It all came in support of the Astros’ rookie pitcher, Luis Garcia.
With the Astros looking to take the second of the four-game series against the American League Central-leading White Sox, Garcia was up to the task.
Things didn’t start off great for Garcia, however. He allowed three straight one-out hits to Chicago in the top of the first as Houston fell behind 1-0 right away. He then had to escape from jams in the second and third innings, and by the time the game moved to the bottom of the third, Garcia had thrown 53 pitches and had given up six hits and two walks.
But from there, Garcia was nearly unhittable. Over the ensuing four innings, the 24-year-old threw just 43 pitches and only allowed a two-out double to White Sox left fielder Andrew Vaughn in the sixth as he kept the Astros in a position to win.
