Astro has another easy time with the White Sox

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks said it doesn’t matter who you hit, no matter if you can get them at the right time.

And that in October.

It doesn’t matter who we play, Hendriks said before Sox. In the first game, which came from an All-Star break and enjoyed a nice eight-game lead in American League Central, Astrot lost 7-1 to AL West on Friday on the guaranteed price field. The biggest thing is to make so many profits and set ourselves apart in the division. You just want to make sure you don’t lose the momentum you’ve gained.

We started the first half strong and want to make sure we keep going.

The Sox started strength against the Astros before the biggest home crowd of the season, 34,516, but they weren’t strong for long. Right-handed Dylan Cease dazzled the first eight strokes and struck five in a row on the way to a 10-strike night. Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada hit right-hand Lance McCullers in the first two pitches for three and double, and spotted Cease in a 1-0 lead.

But McCullers (7-2, 2.80 ERA) didn’t allow a hit after that and hit 10 in seven innings. And Cease interrupted the eight-man episode by walking No. 9 striker Martin Maldonado. Free admission began a two-stage rally that could have been avoided if Leury Garcia had beaten another Jose Altuves on a slow roll for Anderson with a quick pick. After Michael Brantley had grazed on the field to load the bases, Yuli Gurriel drove in two races with one.

I felt like I gave them pretty much the first two runs, Cease said.

A hard walk in front of the top of the lineup, and from my point of view I didn’t see a play that could have been done [in the middle of the infield], director Tony La Russa said. Well placed.

Anyway, it all formed a messy running pair. In the fifth, Brantleys Homer added the lead to Astros 3-1, and left-wing Aaron Bummer, who was just injured, gave four runs in seventh and made 7-1.

The Soxis (54-36) spoke of a new transition to Astros (56-36) after being wiped out in a four-game series in Houston (June 17-20).

But it was more of the same.

They revealed us a bit, Anderson said before the game. Sometimes it is good to be exposed. You don’t know how worse you can be; you are trying to be better. We have a better game plan. Well play hard and see what happens.

Every person. They attach to it like we do. No team that comes to play us is anything special.

The Astros are 5-0 against the Sox and yet have surpassed them 34-9.

We still have two games, and you’ll grab a series against them, La Russa said.

Before the game, he noted Sox’s serial wins against Rays and Blue Jays.

I just think you understand how good Houston is, La Russa said. But I know how good we are. So you are looking forward to the competition.

And I also look forward to the injuries and perhaps upgrades returned by Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert at the second base, the bullfighting department and perhaps the catcher before the July 30 trading deadline.

The good thing for the Sox is that they’re sitting on a big lead, and if it’s piled up against weaker competition, so be it. The Sox are 21-23.500 or higher for teams and 33-13 for less than 500.

As long as we heat up towards the end of the season, Hendriks said. The rest doesn’t matter.

We have to treat these like the playoffs, Cease (7-5, 4.15 ERA) said, but that’s behind us now. We have a talented list and we have good compositions. There is no reason to lose self-confidence.