Houston’s annual trip to the South Side of Chicago.
The Houston Astros get three times to play the AL-worst (again) Chicago White Sox.
Last season, Houston took two-of-three both at home and on the road against the Pale Hose (who stumbled to a glorious 41-121 record). In regular season combat, Houston is 50-43 against the White Sox, along with a 3-5 postseason record (but lets not get into that too awful much).
The last game these two played was on August 18 last season. Framber Valdez (13-5, 3.20) pitched seven shutout innings, allowing a walk and three singles while striking out nine. Yainer Diaz (13) & Jose Altuve (16) went deep, providing all the offense the Astros would need in a 2-0 win. Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader struck out a pair each in a perfect inning (also each).
His stuff is unbelievable — fastball, breaking ball, everything in the zone. Strong performance. — Joe Espada
GameTimes and Starting Pitchers
Friday, 6:40 PM CT: Framber Valdez (1-3, 4.00) vs. Jonathan Cannon (1-3, 4.50)
Saturday, 1:10 PM CT: Hunter Brown (4-1, 1.22) vs. Davis Martin (1-3, 3.24)
Sunday, 1:10 PM CT: Lance McCullers, Jr. (49-32, 3.48) vs. Bryse Wilson (0-1, 5.00)
Houston has three of the five possible aces I was talking about at the end of 2022 scheduled to go over the next three dates. I know he’s up-and-down, but Framber is easily in the top 25 starting pitchers right now, and Hunter Brown may be one of the top five. LMJ is a true wildcard. Will he have a pitch count? I mean, could the Astros possibly take it any slower? Whatever they have in him, his ceiling remains strong number two, even if the reality may in fact be a number four you can plug in every five days. Either way, it’s more than I expect most were counting on at this point.