What an incredibly unlikely season for the Chicago White Sox as they became the first team in MLB history to reach the postseason following consecutive 100-loss seasons -- and they actually entered with three in a row. The Pale Hose play Game 1 of their AL Wild-Card Series at playoff regular and AL West champion Houston today. Bet $5+ on any of today's MLB games to get $150 in bonus bets at DraftKings Sportsbook:
It's a 5 p.m. ET first pitch and will be broadcast on NBCSN. We don't have to worry about weather, as the roof at Daikin Park is often closed, and it's going to be quite hot Tuesday in H-Town, so my guess is that's so. At -123, Houston is taking 75% of handle and 60% of wagers at DraftKings. The total of 8 runs has a 64% money lean but split ticket action.
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White Sox vs. Astros MLB same-game parlay
- Houston money line
- Under 1.5 second-inning runs
- Alt Under 10.5
DrafKings SGP price: +179 (subject to change)
Both these teams pushed hard pretty much to the end to win their respective divisions, so both pitching staffs are a bit jumbled entering Tuesday. The White Sox ended up a game behind Cleveland in the AL Central despite leading a large chunk of the summer. The team's 84 wins were its most in a season since 2021, and that's the last time Chicago was in the playoffs. There's no doubt that second-year manager Will Venable will win AL Manager of the Year honors.
But Chicago was also 36-45 on the road this year, worst of any playoff team, so I'm sad to say I think a two-game sweep is coming, but this season was entirely gravy for the franchise. On the series line, Houston is -145 and the Pale Hose +125. And an Astros sweep is the +235 exact result favorite. It's the third playoff series between the franchises and first since Houston won in four games in the 2021 ALDS. The Astros took five of seven meetings this season.
The White Sox generally win by mashing the ball, as they ranked fifth in the majors in runs and fifth in homers with 211, but they also strike out a ridiculous amount (fifth-most in the majors). Two young guys really sum up the lineup: Second-year shortstop Colson Montgomery has 31 homers and 87 RBI but is hitting only .197 and set a big-league record with 227 strikeouts. Japanese rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami hit 35 homers and knocked in 77 despite spending time on the injured list but whiffed 196 times and is hitting .207. This is very much an all-or-nothing lineup.
Being such a young team, this is a new experience for nearly everyone on the roster. Only three players on the roster have more than three postseason plate appearances â they are veterans Tommy Pham, Andrew Benintendi and Randal Grichuk â and the entire current pitching staff has thrown a combined 13 postseason innings.
Today's primary pitcher is expected to be veteran Erick Fedde (8-9, 3.83 ERA). It will be the 33-year-old's first career playoff start. He was quite a bit worse away this year at 5-6 with a 4.88 ERA and lost his only start to Houston, allowing three runs and five hits over 4.1 innings of a home no-decision on July 26. Fedde will follow an opener in lefty Hagen Smith, so I can't provide a SportsLine Projection Model forecast on Fedde's outing. Smith (3-3, 1.29 ERA) won't likely go more than two innings.
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Houston's Yordan Alvarez, the sure-fire AL MVP who came up a bit short of the Triple Crown thanks solely to Baltimore's Pete Alonso, is 0-for-6 career off Fedde. Jeremy Pena is 3-for-4 off him with two homers and a double â good for a cool 3.300 OPS.
The Astros are in the playoffs for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons, but this might be the end of the "dynasty" as they won the AL West on the season's final day with only a .500 record. Every team in that division finished with a negative run differential. Thanks largely to Alvarez, the Astros led the majors in homers with 226 but also were last in steals (50). Station-to-station or homer.
They were just 39-42 at home, tied for the franchise's worst mark there since 2014. Houston also has lost four straight playoff games, all at home. I will say that since the implementation of the Wild-Card Series in 2022, division champion third seeds like the Stros are 2-6 in this round.
Ideally, Houston would have ace Hunter Brown ready here, and the team could have opted for him on three days of rest, but it will instead save Brown for Wednesday. The Astros essentially blew through all their good starting pitching option in winning three of four games from the Athletics to end the season, as they had to push in all of them to hold off Texas in the AL West.
So the Astros go with rookie righty AJ Blubaugh in what manager Joe Espada said would be a true bullpen day. I was unaware Blubaugh led the majors with 96 relief innings this season, going 5-3 with a 3.66 ERA. His longest outing was 3.2 innings back on May 3, but the Houston Chronicle reports that the team started using him later in the season in higher-leverage situations.
Thus, the 26-year-old's highest pitch count in an appearance after Aug. 1 was 32. I'd probably expect two innings depending on how it's going. Blubaugh led the majors with 27 relief appearances of at least two innings this season. He made three total appearances vs. the White Sox and was 1-0 with no runs allowed and four hits over four innings. No Pale Hose batter has homered off him.
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I would truly be thrilled to see the White Sox pull the upset, but it's such a new experience against a veteran team that I'm struggling to see it. This is one of our best parlay prices of the season as I ended up adding that O/U 1.5 first-inning number to jump it to +179 from +138 but am totally fine with just the two legs. Frankly, I'm fine with just Houston ML but what fun would that be? I prefer the second inning, when close to the bottom of the orders should be up. The model has Chicago winning slightly. Check out other expert picks in the SportsLine daily newsletter.
