DAT 6/19: CWS (Lynn) @ HOU (Frambaw) | 6:15 CT, FOX

After a couple of days of showing off their offensive firepower, the Astros grinded out a 2-1 nailbiter in a whale of a pitching duel between Carlos Rodon and Luis Garcia. Rodon retired the first 13 Astros he faced, and Super Genius Tony LaRussa probably thought he had the perfect plan for victory. Wrong.



Yordan Alvarez's 1-out single in the bottom of the fifth gave the Astros their first baserunner and led to Martin Maldonado's game-tying, 2-out, bases-loaded walk. Alvarez's walk-off double in the ninth backed up 7 innings of 1-run ball from Luis Garcia and 5 strikeouts in 2 innings from Ryne Stanek and Ryan Pressly as Houston (11-4 vs. division leaders) extended its winning streak to 5. In that stretch, Astros starting pitchers have gone 7 innings 3 times, and a Lance McCullers/Jake Odorizzi combo (sandwiched around a Blake Taylor appearance) soaked up 8 1/3 of 10 innings against the Rangers.

Tonight's matchup features 2 pitchers with sub-2.00 ERAs. Framber Valdez (3-0, 1.42 ERA but not enough IP to qualify for ERA lead, 0.95 WHIP) continues his comeback tour against American League ERA leader Lance Lynn (7-2, 1.51, 0.93). This week, the Astros have survived matchups against the Nos. 2 (Rodon) and 3 (Kyle Gibson) pitchers in AL ERA by denting the opponents' bullpens to secure victory. We'll see if the Astros need to wait that long tonight. Lynn is 5-6 in his career against Houston, but 4 of those came against the National League Astros in 2011 and '12. Lynn has finished in the top 10 in AL Cy Young voting in each of the last two seasons. But in that same timeframe, he's 1-5 against the Astros with a 5.89 ERA.

Tonight's game is on big FOX, and former ChiSox catcher/overall douchebag A.J. Pierzynski is in the analyst's chair. Might be a good night to sync Astros radio with your TV set as the home team shoots for its sixth in a row.