Houston beat White Sox for fifth straight win

Houston, Texas: Collin McHugh made his first start in 11 days and nailed it.

The right-hander pitched five steady innings in his return from a detached fingernail, and the Houston Astros extended their winning streak to five games Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Jose Altuve homered and Alex Bregman hit an RBI double for the AL West champions. McHugh (3-2) allowed one run and five hits with five strike-outs, an encouraging sign as the Astros prepare for the play-offs.

“He felt really good. He felt strong,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “I thought McHugh threw the ball really well. I thought his pitch-making ability was really good.”

It was the right-hander’s first outing since detaching a fingernail on his pitching hand September 8.

“Obviously when you’re warming up it was the biggest thing for me, making sure I wasn’t feeling it, I wasn’t compensating for my finger in any way,” McHugh said.

“It was all good today. I didn’t have any issues and I didn’t think about it when I was out there. Mentally getting over that was probably the biggest part.”

Will Harris, Luke Gregerson and Chris Devenski each threw a scoreless inning before Ken Giles pitched the ninth for his 32nd save.

Altuve went the other way for his 24th home run, a solo shot to right field in the fourth. Bregman knocked in Marwin Gonzalez later in the inning to give the Astros a 2-1 lead.

George Springer made it 3-1 in the eighth, just getting his fingertips on home plate and avoiding Kevan Smith’s tag. On the play, Altuve grounded out to third and was thrown out at first, but Smith never tagged Springer after taking the throw from first baseman Jose Abreu. After Springer was initially called out, the play was reviewed and the call was overturned.

“I thought I’d got the plate” the plate feels a little different than the dirt does,” Springer said.

“I thought I had got it and obviously did. It’s a good situation to go sometimes. The infielders aren’t really expecting it and I took a chance.”

Abreu hit an RBI double in the third to put the White Sox up 1-0. Yoan Moncada had three singles for the White Sox.

Lucas Giolito (2-3) threw well for a second straight start, giving up two runs and seven hits over 6 2/3 innings for Chicago.

Results

Results from the MLB games on Tuesday (home team in CAPS)

HOUSTON 3 Chicago White Sox 1

Washington 4 ATLANTA 2

Chicago Cubs 2 TAMPA BAY 1

MIAMI 5 NY Mets 4 (10 innings)

St Louis 8 CINCINNATI 7 (10 innings)

TORONTO 5 Kansas City 2