The Houston Astros' season has come to an end as they have been swept 2-0 in the AL Wild Card following the 7-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
The Houston Astros have now been eliminated from the 2026 MLB Playoffs as the Chicago White Sox completed the 2-0 sweep with the 7-3 victory over the Astros on Wednesday.
This was a pretty tough loss for Houston as it not only ended the season, but it felt as though they never had control of the game, and really was the case with the White Sox taking the lead early and not looking back.
So, let's get into it and see what went wrong for the Astros in this game and what ultimately ended their season.
For this game, the Astros started right-handed pitcher Hunter Brown, and he had a very rough outing as he allowed five hits, four runs, walked one batter, and posted an ERA of 40.50.
The crazy part about Brown's performance is the fact that all of that happened in the 0.2 innings he pitched which was in the first inning.
In terms of how the scoring happened, it started at the top of the first as catcher Kyle Teel singled to the right which allowed the White Sox to score and take the first lead 1-0.
Shortly after that, designated hitter Andrew Benintendi singled to center, which brought Teel home to score and third baseman Miguel Vargas to third. Additionally, Vargas was able to score because of a throwing error by Astros center fielder Lucas Spence, and then Benintendi got to second. As a result of all that action, Chicago extended the lead to 3-0.
The White Sox added even more to the lead in the first inning as center fielder Tristan Peters singled right and Benintendi scored to put Chicago up 4-0.
Following that, manager Joe Espada pulled out Brown and put in right-handed pitcher AJ Blubaugh, who was able to finish off the first inning with no more runs allowed and did the same in the second inning. In total, Blubaugh pitched 1.1 innings and allowed zero hits, zero runs, and struck out two batters, while posting an ERA of 0.00.
On the Astros side they did get on the board in the first inning as shortstop Jeremey Pena homered to left center to cut the lead to 4-1. Then in the second inning, Houston was able to add more as right fielder Cam Smith homered to the left and trimmed the Chicago lead to 4-2.
At the top of the third inning, right-handed pitcher Peter Lambert came in to replace Blubaugh on the mound and did a solid job in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.
On the offensive side for the Astros, they were able to make the game even closer as second baseman Jose Altuve to the left which slimmed the Chicago lead down to 4-3. In he fifth inning, the Astros had the bases loaded, but they were not able to take advanatage.
In the sixth inning, Lambert walked Benintendi, and Luisangel Acuna ended up running for Benintendi. Acuna then stole second, Peters was walked, and after that Acuna stole third.
Following that, Lambert was pulled and replaced by right-handed pitcher Bryan Abreu in the sixth inning.
Abreu then allowed a three-run home run to second baseman Chase Meidroth, which brought Acuna, Peters, and Meidroth back home to put the White Sox up 7-3. With the home run, Lambert's final stats included two allowed runs, two walks, two batters being struck out, and an ERA of 6.00 over the three innings he pitched.
Following the home run, Abreu responded well as he did not allow another run and was replaced by right-handed pitcher Josh Hader near the end of the eighth inning when the Astros had forced two outs.
With that said, Abreu's final stats for the game were 2.2 innings pitched, one hit allowed, one run allowed, which was a home run, one walk, and six strikeouts, while having an ERA of 2.45.
After coming in near the end of the eighth inning, Hader finished the game and pitched for a total of 1.1 innings and allowed two hits, zero runs, struck out one batter, and had an ERA of 0.00.
When it comes to the Astros offense, they were unable to get anything going in the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth innings. In the ninth inning, the story was very similar: first baseman Christian Walker struck out, Spence flew out to center, and right fielder Cam Smith struck out, which were the final three outs of Houston's season.
With the Astros unable to add any runs in the ninth inning, the White Sox completed the AL Wild Card series sweep as Chicago defeated Houston 7-3 and will advance to the ALDS to take on the Cleveland Guardians.
This was a brutal loss for the Astros, as the pitching was ultimately a key reason as to why they went home early. Also, designated hitter Yordan Alvarez was unable to get much going at the plate, and without him getting hot, Houston could not get enough runs on the board to stave off elimination.
Now the Astros head into the offseason having to answer questions about the pitching, who will be the next general manager, and who will manage this team next season as they hope to make a deeper run than they did in 2026.
