HOUSTON — Mauricio Dubón hit a sharp single to left field in the third inning Saturday night at Minute Maid Park.
Shay Whitcomb moved from second to third on the hit as Chicago White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi quickly got the ball back to the infield.
But third baseman Lenyn Sosa didn’t field the short-hop throw cleanly, and Dubón scooted to second to give the Houston Astros two runners in scoring position.
Jose Altuve made the Sox pay for the error — and gave the Astros the lead — with a two-run single.
The next inning, Gavin Sheets was on second with one out for the Sox when Dominic Fletcher hit a liner that shortstop Jeremy Peña snagged. Sheets took one step too many toward third before trying to retreat to second and was doubled off to end the inning.
The Sox did themselves no favors in a 6-1 loss in front of 37,008.
“The ball just didn’t go our way tonight,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said.
While Benintendi was charged with a throwing error on the play in the third inning, Sizemore said it was an instance in which Sosa could have taken a step back to avoid the short hop.
“There’s not really any action there, just back up and make it easy,” Sizemore said. “He tried to catch it short hop and it went through him. Just one of those things, you have to be heads-up, you’ve got to protect the ball. I think if he just retreats there and makes it an easier hop, you can keep that guy from going. Just, got to do the little things. Those things add up. If you don’t take care of the ball, bad things will happen.”
Sheets said a late adjustment by Peña led to the fourth-inning double play.
“I had (Peña), last I checked he was right on my hip on my left and when he threw the pitch he bounced off and got to my right without me knowing,” Sheets said. “I was reading him being up the middle with the lefty shift. Unfortunately when I went back and looked, he hopped back and got on my right side.
“He was on my left and I thought the whole right hole was open. I have to get back on that one.”
The Sox didn’t have a lot of action on the bases most of the night. They finished with five hits — two by Sheets, two by Andrew Vaughn and one by Luis Robert Jr.
Astros starter Hunter Brown allowed one run on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.
“He’s got good stuff, four-pitch guy,” Sheets said. “Has electric stuff. I think he mixed well when he threw strikes with all of his pitches. That’s the biggest thing for him. When he’s in the zone with all of his pitches, he’s really tough to hit. I thought he threw the ball well.”
Sox starter Chris Flexen allowed four runs on seven hits with one strikeout and one walk in four innings. Flexen is winless in his last 18 starts. He is 0-9 since his last victory, which came May 8 against the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“It’s frustrating, especially when you want to go deep in games, that’s the most frustrating part,” Flexen said. “Continue to battle and try to put together solid outings, and when you don’t that’s the most frustrating part. Especially today — the last couple (outings) — four innings. Put us in a hole early.”
The Sox were errorless in eight of their last nine games entering the contest but committed two Saturday while falling to 30-94. They have lost 30 of their last 34 games.
“Tonight wasn’t one of our better ones,” Sheets said. “But hopefully we get back on it (Sunday). We still have a chance to win a series in Houston, which is all we can ask for. We’ve got to wash this one. We made some mistakes that we don’t want to make and we’ll clean up and (Sunday) will be a good one.”
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