HOUSTON — Dallas Keuchel didn’t have the storybook return to Minute Maid Park he and the Chicago White Sox would have liked.
Instead, the White Sox wrapped up a nightmare of a series with a blowout loss.
Keuchel didn’t get out of the third inning in his first start against his former team and the Houston Astros beat the Sox 8-2 in front of 39,821 on Sunday to complete a four-game sweep.
Keuchel, who pitched for the Astros from 2012-18, allowed six runs (three earned) on seven hits with three strikeouts and four walks in 2⅔ innings. It was his shortest outing of the season.
The Astros won their seventh straight. The Sox have lost a season-high four in a row and saw their lead in the American League Central shrink to 2½ games over the Cleveland Indians.
Right fielder Jake Lamb gave the Sox a brief 2-1 lead Sunday with a two-run home run to right in the second.
But the Astros took advantage of spotty Sox defense during a five-run third. Carlos Correa singled to center and Michael Brantley beat Brian Goodwin’s high throw to third. Correa got caught in a rundown attempting to take second on the play. He advanced safely when Anderson dropped the ball.
Yordan Alvarez followed with a two-run single. Taylor Jones had an RBI double and Keuchel exited three batters later after surrendering a bases-loaded walk to Jose Altuve.
Three of the four Sox starters in the series didn’t make it to the fifth inning. Dylan Cease went 3⅓ innings in Thursday’s 10-2 loss while Lance Lynn lasted four innings in Saturday’s 7-3 loss.
The defense let the team down, as illustrated Sunday even when the game was out of reach. There was a miscommunication in the fifth inning between Lamb in right, Goodwin in center field and second baseman Danny Mendick on a ball to shallow right-center hit by Chas McCormick; it fell in for a two-out single.
Brantley followed with an RBI single to make it 8-2.
While the Astros collected 14 hits, the Sox stumbled offensively. Two of the team’s three hits came during the two-run second.
