HOUSTON — White Sox ace left-hander Garrett Crochet returned to his 2024 All-Star form with nine strikeouts.
Luis Robert Jr. looked like his 2023 All-Star self with two home runs.
After going 0-3 with an 8.78 ERA in his four starts since his scoreless inning at the All-Star Game, Crochet threw 55 pitches, 43 of them for strikes, in four innings of one-run, four-hit ball in the Sox’ 5-4 victory Friday against the Astros, who had won eight games in a row. Crochet did not walk a batter.
And Robert, after going 5-for-46 in his previous 11 games, went 4-for-5, including the two homers off right-hander Spencer Arrighetti, one of them a 412-foot shot to the train tracks beyond left field. Robert drove in four runs.
It was the Sox’ 30th victory to go with 93 losses. Chad Kuhl allowed a pinch homer to Jon Singleton in the ninth but struck out Jose Altuve to end the game for his second career save.
On a watch-and-see pitch limit as he hits the second half of August in his first year of starting, Crochet was pulled with a three-run lead.
“Be mindful of where he’s at in the year,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “It’s not set on innings or a pitch count; it’s just based on how the game is going.”
This one couldn’t have gone better.
“First-pitch strikes played a part; I think I was 13-for-16,” Crochet said. “But I feel like the execution as a whole was better.”
Crochet used more of his five-pitch mix, worked both sides of the strike zone and pitched up and down to the Astros, whose only run against him came on Yordan Alvarez’s bloop single in the third inning.
“That was a big part of my game plan,” Crochet said. “Kind of made sense, coming off my last start against them where I threw all cutters and fastballs.”
He was pulled in favor of Touki Toussaint, who pitched a scoreless fifth before allowing a two-run homer to Jake Meyers, who struck out twice against Crochet.
If discussions have taken place between Crochet and the Sox’ brain trust about shutting him down soon, Sizemore said he isn’t privy to them.
“As we get closer to the end of the year, there may be a point, but I haven’t heard anything yet, so nothing new there,” Sizemore said.
Swing early, swing big
Robert was ultra-aggressive, seeing 10 pitches in the fifth four-hit game of his career.
“Yes, that was the plan,” he said. “I was able to execute what I haven’t before. Take advantage of the pitcher’s mistake. That was the big key.”
Leone to 60-day IL; Foster reinstated
Right-hander Matt Foster, who hadn’t pitched for the Sox since 2022, returned from his injury-rehabilitation assignment and was reinstated from the 60-day injured list. He pitched a perfect eighth.
Foster took a spot in the bullpen vacated by Dominic Leone, who went on the 60-day IL with a sprained right UCL.
Foster, 29, had been on the IL since the start of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Broadcast bits
Gordon Beckham is filling in for Steve Stone in the booth in Houston. In San Francisco from Monday through Wednesday, Len Kasper and Beckham will have the TV booth, and Connor McKnight and Darrin Jackson will do radio.
John Schriffen has a UFC assignment in Las Vegas.