White Sox 6, Astros 3: Chicago Takes AL Wild Card Game 1

He tripped on the way out. Chicago did not trip again.

September 29, 2026 - Houston - Sam Antonacci stumbled coming out of the dugout for introductions. The Chicago White Sox still beat the Houston Astros 6-3 in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series at Daikin Park, and the only stumble anyone will remember is the one that happened before first pitch.

Roof closed. 73 degrees. No wind. First pitch 4:10 p.m. Attendance 34,011. The game lasted 3 hours, 13 minutes. Chicago leads the series 1-0. One more win sends the White Sox to Cleveland for a Division Series against a Guardians club that won the AL Central by a game even though Chicago took the season series 7-6.

"Our mindset is we're taking it as though we're 0-0," Antonacci said, per MLB.com. "A lot can happen, and they have really good arms."

A sac fly, a two-run single, then Colson to center

Munetaka Murakami lifted a sacrifice fly in the first. Antonacci scored. 1-0. The second inning piled on. Braden Montgomery and Chase Meidroth were on when Antonacci lined a single to left. Two runs. 3-0. Colson Montgomery homered to center in the fourth. 4-0. Meidroth singled Murakami home in the fifth. 5-0, and Houston had not scored yet.

Hagen Smith opened and threw three innings: two hits, no earned runs, no walks, one strikeout, 38 pitches. That is an opener who did the job. Jordan Hicks threw 1 1/3 scoreless after him (one strikeout, 17 pitches) and got the win. The rest was a committee that never handed Houston a clean inning to steal the afternoon.

Houston's first real noise was a pinch-hit. Nelson Velázquez homered to left in the fifth off Sean Newcomb, Lucas Spence scoring with him. 5-2. That is a 2-run swing that changes a blowout into a game you still have to finish. Chicago finished it.

A wild pitch in the seventh. An error in the eighth.

Murakami scored on a wild pitch in the seventh. Bennett Sousa had just struck out Braden Montgomery, and the ball still got away. 6-2. Grant Taylor threw 2 1/3 innings after that: two hits, no earned runs, one walk, five strikeouts, 54 pitches, a career high in pitches, the MLB recap said. He froze Yainer Diaz on a 3-2 curve to end the eighth.

Houston's last run was unearned. Jeremy Peña scored in the eighth when Jose Altuve reached on a throwing error by third baseman Miguel Vargas. Chicago challenged the play at first. The call stood. 6-3. Yordan Alvarez had already reached. The Astros still could not get the tying run to the plate.

AJ Blubaugh took the loss. Miguel Ullola threw three innings of relief: one hit, one earned, four strikeouts, Colson's homer the damage. Houston's rotation did not get a conventional Game 1 start. Chicago's did not either. The difference was the second inning and the fourth.

Antonacci went 1-for-3 with a walk, a hit by pitch, two RBI, and a run. He set the White Sox single-season hit-by-pitch record at 27 during the regular year, the MLB recap said, and Houston plunked him again. Colson went 1-for-3 with the homer, a hit by pitch, and an RBI. Murakami went 1-for-3 with a walk, a sac fly, two runs, and an RBI. Meidroth went 2-for-4. Braden went 2-for-4. Randal Grichuk went 2-for-3. Velázquez went 1-for-3 with the two-run homer. Christian Walker walked twice and did not drive anyone in.

Colson, on the homer: "I felt ready. I felt on time with everything, and just the last pitch, I was probably more committed to what I was trying to do," per MLB.com.

Wednesday is Burke and Brown. Tuesday is already in the book.

Sean Burke starts Game 2 against Hunter Brown. Chicago has not won a playoff series since sweeping Houston in the 2005 World Series. That sentence is history, not a prediction. Visiting teams that take a 1-0 Wild Card lead have won 12 of 15 series, the MLB recap said. The most recent home team to lose Game 1 and still advance was the Yankees against the Red Sox last year.

Antonacci already said the club is treating Wednesday like 0-0. That is the right pose. A 6-3 on the road in Houston still counts as a punch. It does not count as the series.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Chicago at 12 team fantasy points on a 6-3. Taylor had 8.33 pitching FP. Smith and Ullola sat at 8. Antonacci had 6 hitting FP, tied with Velázquez's homer in a loss.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*