Lucas Giolito took a perfect game into the seventh inning and the Chicago White Sox used three home runs for a 4-1 victory over the host Oakland Athletics in Game 1 of their American League first-round playoff series on Tuesday.
Making his postseason debut, Giolito retired the first 18 batters he faced until Tommy La Stella lashed a single up the middle to lead off the seventh inning and break up the perfect-game bid.
Giolito (1-0), who threw a no-hitter against Pittsburgh on Aug. 25, became just the fifth pitcher in major league history to take a perfect game into the seventh inning of a postseason game. He wound up allowing one run on two hits in seven-plus innings. Giolito walked one and struck out eight.
Closer Alex Colome worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the save, closing a game in which the White Sox got solo homers from Adam Engel and Yasmani Grandal as well as a two-run shot from Jose Abreu.
Astros 4, Twins 1
Jose Altuve walked with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to force in the go-ahead run and Michael Brantley followed with a two-run single as Houston beat Minnesota in the opening game of an American League wild-card series in Minneapolis.
It was a continuation of playoff misery for the Twins, who absorbed their major-league-record 17th consecutive postseason loss.
Altuve’s two-out walk against reliever Sergio Romo (0-1) came after shortstop Jorge Polanco threw wildly to second baseman Luis Arraez on what would have been a routine inning-ending forceout. Framber Valdez (1-0) threw five innings of two-hit shutout relief for the win.
Rays 3, Blue Jays 1
Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and Manuel Margot homered as Tampa Bay held off Toronto to win Game 1 of their American League wild-card series in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Tampa Bay scored a run on a fourth-inning wild pitch and got a two-run homer from Margot — who hit only one in the regular season — in the seventh to extend the advantage to 3-0.
Snell (1-0) finished with 5 2/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball and tied the team’s postseason record with nine strikeouts. Alejandro Kirk broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the sixth, and Snell exited after retiring the next two batters. He walked two. Pete Fairbanks pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn the save.
–Field Level Media
