Sixth senseless: Astros squash White Sox’ momentum with 8-run inning

The White Sox were back on the South Side Friday after finishing a 4-2 road trip, and they own one of the best home records in MLB.

So this is where they pull away in the AL Central, right?

It looked like it for most of the night, but Houston erupted for 8 runs in the sixth inning, flipping a 5-0 deficit to beat the Sox 9-5 at Rate Field.

To finish off this 100-to-1 season, the White Sox need their starting pitchers to stay solid. That's could be the most likely spot to search for help before the trade deadline.

It starts at the top, with getting Davis Martin back to his early-season form. He tossed 5 scoreless inning in this game, then departed after facing four batters in the sixth, giving up three singles and a hit batter.

Bryan Hudson, who closed the most recent Sox victory, came in and surrendered a 3-run double to Christian Walker. Seranthony Dominguez finished the inning, but not before adding a bases-loaded walk. The final tally was 4 runs each charged to Martin and Hudson.

“It's unacceptable,” Martin said. “I think the tone-setting of the sixth inning was really bad on my part, which kind of leads to the bigger inning. I know Huddy's going to say the same thing, and Ser's going to say the same thing, that we needed to all stop the bleeding somehow.

“But it's baseball, sometimes baseball happens. You get singled to death a little bit, and then the bases-clearing double. It's a little gut wrenching, but you've just got to pick yourself back up and move on to tomorrow.”

A few weeks ago, Martin talked about needing the all-star break, because he was starting to feel the wear and tear of this healthy, successful season. After this game he insisted fatigue was no factor.

“It's bad luck,” he said. “That's the best I've felt. I'm ripping through pitches. I feel like the breaking stuff's biting like it did at the beginning of the first half, throwing change-ups in zone, we're throwing sinkers whenever we want. Just the overall arsenal itself is about as sharp as it can be.

“Even when you're at the sharpest, guys get hits, guys get lucky, just move on. Physically I feel great. The break was incredible. The last two outing felt great.”

The White Sox offense still seems to be fine. Braden Montgomery had a career-high three hits, while Chase Meidroth stayed hot with two RBI. The Sox were susceptible to infield pop ups in this game, with 18 flyball outs compared to just one grounder.

One oddity in this game was seven players hit by pitch. The Sox were struck four times and Houston three.

The next couple of weeks could be telling for rookie Noah Schultz. He had a nice outing against the Athletics just before the all-star break but has a 6.50 ERA in four starts since returning from a knee injury.

Asked about Schultz before the game, manager Will Venable said the plan is for the left-hander to stay in the rotation and face the New York Yankees next week.

One of the issues for Schultz has been staying in the strike zone. Venable pointed to no walks by Schultz in his last two starts but felt maybe the stuff hasn't been as good, since the 6-foot-10 Oswego native is focusing so hard on control.

“I think maybe it came at the cost of a little down tick in some of this stuff,” Venable said. “I think his fastball was down maybe a mile an hour on average, and you're not seeing the swing and misses in the zone.

“We've got to make sure that we're getting back to that really crisp stuff, and trying to get it in the zone. So he's got a lot to work on, but I think he's taking steps forward.”