White Sox beat Astros 6-3, look for sweep in Wild Card Game 2

The rematch nobody in Houston wanted

The White Sox took Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series 6-3 on Tuesday at Daikin Park, and Wednesday they get a shot to finish the job. Game 2 starts at 5 p.m. ET on Peacock and NBCSN, with Spanish language coverage on Universo and Univision Radio and ESPN Radio carrying it nationally. A White Sox win ends Houston's season on the spot and sends Chicago to the ALDS for the first time since 2021.

The loss was Houston's eighth straight home playoff defeat, a streak that stretches back to Game 1 of the 2023 ALDS. Manager Joe Espada didn't try to soften it afterward. "The message is clear: We got to win tomorrow," he said. He also pointed to how this group tends to respond with its season on the line, saying the Astros are at their best "when we fight back."

The pitching matchup

White Sox manager Will Venable had Sean Burke lined up as his Game 2 starter before he ever made it official, and Tuesday's win only locked it in. Burke has been Chicago's steadiest arm all season, going 11-7 with a 3.34 ERA and 185 strikeouts over 172 1/3 innings. Closer Grant Taylor threw a career-high 54 pitches getting the White Sox through a bullpen game in Game 1, which puts more weight on Burke to go deep Wednesday.

Houston counters with Hunter Brown, who finished third in AL Cy Young voting a year ago and has owned the White Sox specifically, going 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA over two starts against them this season. His full season tells a different story. A shoulder strain cost him two and a half months, and he finished 6-4 with a 3.19 ERA across 20 starts, still working through four-seam command issues.

History and a ballpark with baggage

Daikin Park carries its own weight for Chicago. The White Sox haven't won a playoff series since they beat Houston in the 2005 World Series, at this same ballpark. That's a 21-year wait, and a win Wednesday would end it with a sweep.

The numbers lean toward the road team. Visiting clubs that grab a 1-0 lead in a Wild Card series have gone on to win 12 of 15 of those series, 80 percent, including nine outright sweeps. Comebacks do happen. Last year the Yankees rallied from an 0-1 hole to beat the Red Sox. That's the exception, not the pattern.

What both sides are saying

Venable sounded like a manager who knows one win settles nothing yet, saying the club came to Houston to win the series and getting the first one was just a start. Espada is leaning on a team he says fights back when cornered. Which version shows up Wednesday at Daikin Park is the only thing left to find out.

Facts per MLB.com, CBS Sports. Opinion is the taproom's.