Montgomery's big night not enough as White Sox fall to Astros

HOUSTON – The game put together by Colson Montgomery during a 6-3 loss to the Astros Monday night at Daikin Park showed off the White Sox shortstop at his best offensively.

And the solid evening started with a one-out walk off Peter Lambert in the second.

“Your first at-bat, it shouldn't be like this, but it can kind of determine how you're feeling at the plate,” said Montgomery after his team’s second straight setback. “Once I worked the walk and saw pretty much everything he had, I knew I was in a really good spot with my approach and things like that, trusting myself.

“Felt good from that point on and then going into the second at-bat, kind of the same thing. It led to throughout the game, I felt really comfortable."

Montgomery drew two of the 10 White Sox walks on the night, striking out once in the ninth against Bryan Abreu. Even in that matchup, Montgomery worked the count full before swinging through a four-seamer.

In the fourth, Montgomery doubled to right and scored on Chase Meidroth’s single to left. He launched his 29th home run in the seventh, connecting off southpaw Bennett Sousa on a 1-2 four-seamer to cut Houston’s lead to 6-3.

“It's left on left. I still feel very confident against lefties,” Montgomery said of the homer. “It's just more four-seam/slider mix. Dotted a couple pitches at the beginning of the at-bat and it's just one of those times where it's two strikes and you battle.

“Staying with my same approach and things like that, but then fouled off a fastball at the top of the zone. Fouled off a slider. After the slider, I felt like I was in a really good spot and then he just left the fastball over the middle of the plate."

Putting up this kind of showing in the opener of a four-game set with the Astros exited an up and often down August on a high note for Montgomery. He hit four homers and drove in 14 overall, but struck out 47 times against 10 walks to go with a slash line of .200/.277/.360.

Munetaka Murakami had five homers in August with just seven RBIs and 12 runs scored against 46 strikeouts. But the power-packed White Sox first baseman had a similar strong closing night by walking three times.

“Yeah, great day by Colson. Really nice to see and Mune too, just making good swing decisions,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “You look back at the last little stretch here, those two, Vargy [Miguel Vargas] included, where they are taking walks.

“They are making good swing decisions. We just aren’t getting that big hit. Really nice to see from Colson since he’s gone in and out of feeling really good, that was a really good day for him.”

These sorts of highs and lows are part of the continued learning curve for Montgomery, who became the 61st player in franchise history to reach 50 career homers on Monday.

“Baseball is going to happen,” said Montgomery with a wry smile. “There's just going to be times where you might feel good but then you're not getting your results or things like that. It's like I've been trying to stay disciplined with myself, with my process and trying to trust myself at the plate and stay committed to what I want to do and not really try to get out of my zone or really what I'm trying to do.

“Tonight was big for what I'm about. I'm going to take my walks and then if you throw a ball over the plate, I'm probably going to do some damage on it. You want to do it consistently and it's really hard to do, but I feel good."

That same good feeling permeates across the White Sox (72-65), as they move into September and the final 25 games. They enter with a three-game lead in the American League Central over the Guardians, who were idle Monday, and now hold a 2 1/2-game lead over the Astros (70-68) in a battle for the potential AL two seed.

Finishing 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and 14 left on base hasn’t shaken the White Sox confidence or altered their resolve.

“It's going to be a grind, going through September,” Montgomery said. “There's good teams in this division. Just take it one game at a time and I think we're in a really good spot.”

“We’re in the driver seat here,” said White Sox starter Anthony Kay, who pitched better than his five earned runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings Monday showed. “We know what we’ve got to do. We’re going to keep grinding days away, trying to stack some wins and keep this lead.”