Chicago White Sox waste another strong start from ‘dialed in’ Carlos Rodón, losing to the Houston Astros 2-1 on a walk-off double in the 9th

Carlos Rodón pitched seven strong innings.

But the Chicago White Sox couldn’t take advantage of some early opportunities and then watched as the Houston Astros capitalized late.

Yuli Gurriel scored from first on Yordan Alvarez’s one-out double to right in the ninth inning, giving the Astros a 2-1 win in front of 30,898 at Minute Maid Park.

Gurriel singled with one out against reliever Garrett Crochet. Alvarez followed with his game-winning hit down the right-field line for the Astros’ second straight win in the four-game series.

The Sox remain 3½ games ahead of the second-place Cleveland Indians in the American League Central.

“That’s as close as you can get to playoff atmosphere,” Rodón said. “It was fun to be out there, but it was a tough loss. They threw the ball well, we threw the ball well, 2-1 game, not much you can do.”

Rodón did all he could to keep the Sox in it, allowing one run on three hits with eight strikeouts and three walks against one of the top-hitting team’s in baseball.

“He’s been just as dialed in as you guys see,” Sox catcher Zack Collins said. “Everything is working for him. We are working on the fastball, in, up, down, everywhere. The slider is wipeout and the changeup was pretty good tonight as well. Overall he threw pretty well.”

Luis Garcia was just as effective for the Astros, allowing one run on seven hits with eight strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.

He flirted with trouble in the first three innings, but the Sox couldn’t put together a big inning.

The Sox took a 1-0 lead in the first when José Abreu knocked in Brian Goodwin with a single to right. The Sox had two on with one out but failed to add on in the inning. The Sox also stranded two runners in the second and third.

“We had some opportunities to add runs in the first inning and two or three times we had a man in scoring position,” manager Tony La Russa said. “But I didn’t see anything that was thrown in the middle of the plate that said ‘hit me.’ Just think they made good pitches and they got the outs.

“Kind of what they saw all night long, even starting with Carlos. When it came down to those run-scoring (opportunities) and adding runs, they made the pitches.”

The Sox had just one hit after the third, a sixth-inning double from Andrew Vaughn. The throw from right bounced and hit him in the face, and Vaughn left the game in the eighth because of a facial contusion. He is day to day.

“His vision there right before he was going to take that at-bat (in the eighth), his eyes were watering a little bit and he was having a little trouble seeing clearly,” La Russa said. “We’ll see how he looks (Saturday).”

Rodón — who pitched a no-hitter April 14 against the Indians and took another one into the seventh inning in his last outing Sunday at Detroit — retired the first 13 batters Friday.

Alvarez beat the shift and bounced one down the third-base line for the Astros’ first hit. Carlos Correa walked, and Abraham Toro singled to load the bases with one out.

Rodón struck out Myles Straw but then walked Martín Maldonado, and Alvarez scored to tie the game. Rodón struck out Jose Altuve to end the fifth.

“The game should have blown up there, but he got Altuve,” La Russa said. “That’s all you need to know about what type of pitcher and competitor he is. When he struck him out, I thought we’d win the game.”

The Astros had runners on first and second with one out in the seventh, but Rodón got Straw to hit into an inning-ending double play.

“I was just trying to attack,” Rodón said. “They made me work. I was pretty tired in the seventh and they said ‘Can you get me one more?’ And I said, ‘yeah, let’s do it.’ Luckily we got the ground-ball double play, and the boys made the play.”

Collins summed it up well.

“Overall a good night pitching,” he said. “We just have to score a little more.”

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