Luis Robert Jr. hit two home runs and had a season-high four hits and four RBIs in the Chicago White Sox’s 5-4 win over the Houston Astros on Friday night.
“They’ve been fighting really hard,” said Chicago interim manager Grady Sizemore. “I told them these last five games or so, they have been playing great and just to keep it up and good things will happen, and they showed up again tonight and really battled and fought hard.”
The White Sox, who have the worst record in the majors (30-93), won for the second time in four games, ending the Astros’ eight-game winning streak, their longest of the season.
“This was a pretty big game for us,” said White Sox starter Garrett Crochet. “With not having any playoff hopes, one of our goals is to mess things up for everyone else, and we knew that the Astros were on a hot streak. So this win definitely feels good.”
Jon Singleton, a pinch-hitter for Houston, hit a solo home run off Chad Kuhl with two outs in the ninth to make it 5-4. But Kuhl struck out Jose Altuve to end the game and earn his first save.
Robert hit a two-run homer in the third inning and a solo shot in the fifth as the White Sox took a 4-1 lead. This was Robert’s seventh career game with two home runs and his first since March 30 against Detroit.
“This is a good start,” Robert said in Spanish through a translator, “but I still need to keep working and try to get more comfortable.”
Jake Meyers hit a two-run homer for Houston in the sixth to make it 4-3, but Robert added an insurance run with an RBI single with two outs in the eighth.
Robert’s first hit of the night was a single in the first inning, but he was thrown out trying to turn it into a double.
The Astros struck out a season-high 16 times in their first loss since August 5. Crochet allowed four hits and one run with nine strikeouts in four innings.
Houston starter Spencer Arrighetti (5-11) gave up seven hits and four runs in 5 2/3 innings.
