Ky Bush tosses six innings of one-run ball vs. Astros, but Sox lose game, series

HOUSTON – In his third major league start and against one of baseball's best teams over the last two months, left-hander Ky Bush gave the White Sox a shot at winning a game and a series.

Bush pitched six innings of one-run ball Sunday, but the Sox were shackled by Astros left-hander Framber Valdez, who was even better with seven innings of three-hit, scoreless ball in a 2-0 Astros victory. Valdez struck out nine batters.

Yainer Diaz homered against Bush leading off the sixth, and Jose Altuve homered against right-hander John Brebbia in the eighth.

Bush gave up three runs in four innings in his debut at Oakland and two runs over 4 2/3 innings in his second start against the Yankees. Against the Astros, he threw 87 pitches, 54 for strikes.

Right fielder Dominic Fletcher took a home run away from Diaz, reaching above the wall for an out in the first inning.

The Sox were trying to win a series for the first time since the last weekend in June.

Flushing bad baseball

Doug Sisson is bringing a breath of no-nonse accountability to the White Sox bench. As interim manager Grady Sizemore’s bench coach, Sisson is nothing of the coddling sort when it comes to bad baseball.

If there’s anything Sisson, 60, a long-time baseball guy can’t tolerate, it’s bad baseball.

The Sox played it poorly in their loss to the Astros Saturday and Sisson could hardly take it.

He was particularly bothered by third baseman Lenyn Sosa’s failure to “take care of the baseball” on a throw in from left fielder Andrew Benintendi.

“There were four plays in my mind, and I don’t want to belabor it, but it’s about playing clean baseball,” Sisson said. “Games are lost more than they’re won. If you can win the freebie war, they’re allowed 27 outs, we can only give them 27 outs. When the ball starts rolling around and you start giving guys free bases, that’s when you get in trouble. And the game punishes you for it.”

Sisson is the field coordinator in the Sox’ farm system. He was with the major league team for a stretch earlier in the season. Success comes from clean, smart baseball on a daily basis, he said.

“We didn’t play good baseball. Not at all,” Sisson said. “And I don’t believe in the ‘flush it’ thing. You use that as a competitive edge.”

 

Bullish on Grady

 

Sisson said he developed a friendship with and was impressed by interim manager Grady Sizemore during spring training, often watching nine innings together, “talking through everything from effort to execution to situational baseball. What would you do here, how would you run practice.”

“Leadership comes in all forms and sizes, but the best thing about Grady is he’s just real. He immediately commands respect because he’s a genuine guy. He knows what he’s looking at, he knows what good baseball looks like. And he knows how to get guys to play good baseball. I just have tremendous respect. His ceiling is as high as anybody in this game.”
 
Top pick promoted

Left-hander Hagen Smith, taken fifth overall in this year’s draft, will make his debut at High-A Winston-Salem Saturday. Smith is MLB Pipeline’s No. 32 prospect and 2022 first-rounder Noah Schultz is No. 15, giving the Sox the top two rated left-handed pitching prospects.