Reddick's 2-HR night slams White Sox

CHICAGO -- Even though White Sox starter Lucas Giolito had walked him on four pitches in the first inning Saturday and had walked the first three Astros hitters ahead of him in the second inning, outfielder Josh Reddick wasn't about to let a fastball in the strike zone go past him.
Reddick mashed the first pitch Giolito threw to him in the second and sent it over the right-field wall for a game-breaking grand slam and added another homer in the fourth to back starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel in a 10-1 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
"You've got to focus in and find the pitch you're looking for and put it in one spot, and if you get it, you get to take a swing at it. If you don't, let it go," Reddick said. "[Facing] a guy who's struggling, you try to stay in the zone as much as you can, and if he gives you one, then you take it."
Grand slams mean 40% off pizza
The Astros have won five games in a row, outscoring their opponents 40-5 in the process, including 20-1 in the first two games against the White Sox. Houston has held the opposition to two runs or fewer in six consecutive games.

Keuchel (1-3) earned his first win of the season by holding the White Sox to one run -- a solo homer in the fifth inning by Trayce Thompson -- and four hits in six innings. The Astros had scored six runs in the first four games Keuchel started before scoring four in both the first and second innings Saturday.
"I've been asking for runs, and then I was mad because we scored too many runs and it was a slow pace to start the game," Keuchel joked. "We're swinging the bat. That's who we are. I know the starters get a lot of pub and a lot of love, but we prefer the hitters to get the notoriety and us lay back in the weeds. It was a good all-around game and kind of a repetition of [Friday] night."

The first four Astros hitters in the game reached and scored, capped by a bases-loaded ground-rule double by Marwin Gonzalez. Giolito walked George Springer, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa to start the second and paid for it when Reddick launched his second grand slam of the season for an 8-0 lead.
"The approach with a guy like that, especially a young pitcher, is to be ready to hit in the middle of the zone, because if he can't locate, he's certainly going to throw to the big part of the zone," Astros manager AJ Hinch said.

Reddick became the first Astros player in history to hit two grand slams in April, and he's the first Houston hitter to have two grand slams in the same month since Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell in May 2001. Reddick has eight multihomer games, including two this year.
"We're a good team and a good lineup and we weren't going to struggle for very long," Reddick said. "The way our staff has been starting games for us, it's been a whole lot easier to focus on getting our at-bats right and the way we need to do it and go about things."

SOUND SMART
Prior to Reddick, the last American League players to record two games with at least two homers and five RBIs within the first 22 games of a season were Manny Ramirez (Boston) and Alex Rodriguez (Yankees) in 2005.
HE SAID IT
"Ecstatic. I didn't think I was going to have six in the first month. This is over the standard for myself." -- Reddick, on leading the club in home runs

UP NEXT
Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. (2-1, 5.57 ERA), who struck out 11 batters and allowed just one hit and one run in seven innings Tuesday in Seattle, gets the start in Sunday's 1:10 p.m. CT series finale against the White Sox. Right-hander Reynaldo López (0-2, 1.42 ERA) will start for Chicago.