Jake Meyers’ Career Day Leads Astros Past White Sox 8-3

CHICAGO – The nine-hitter may not have seemed like the Astros' biggest threat going into Saturday’s game against the White Sox.

Center fielder Jake Meyers began the day with zero home runs, six RBI and a .262/.308/.310/.617 slash line this season. But by the end of Houston’s 8-3 win over the White Sox at Rate Field, he recorded more home runs and RBI in four at-bats than he did in his previous 92 plate appearances, raising his OPS 163 points.

With this loss, the White Sox first three-game win streak of the season will have to wait as they fell to 9-24 ahead of Sunday’s 1:10 p.m. CT series finale.

Manager Will Venable said pregame he wanted the White Sox to be in attack-mode against Astros starter Hunter Brown. The right-hander had been one of MLB’s best pitchers roughly one month into the season, posting a 1.22 ERA and leading American League pitchers with 1.8 wins above replacement.

Early on, the ultra-aggressive approach worked. Rookie shortstop Chase Meidroth led off the game with a line drive single, and Miguel Vargas and Andrew Benintendi followed suit with a pair of singles to bring in the game’s first run. Andrew Vaughn gave the White Sox a 3-0 lead in the first with a two-RBI single, driving a high and inside sinker to center field.

put up a 3️⃣-spot in the 1st pic.twitter.com/NMzHliWAFp
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 3, 2025

That made for a rare outing for Brown, who had allowed just five earned runs all season. In his first six starts, Brown hadn’t given up more than two earned runs, and he posted three shutouts with at least six innings.

But after a rough first inning with four hits and three runs, Brown didn’t allow a hit or a run across the next five innings and capped off his outing by striking out the side. Benintendi thought Brown was effective in using his offspeed pitches more frequently in the later innings, while still having life on his fastball.

“I think the big approach, as much as being aggressive was to be aggressive to our zone, knowing that he's really good and he's got good stuff,” Venable said. “But we really had to zone him up, and that he could be erratic at times. So I thought you saw the guys do that early, where we just had really good at-bats, and we weren't chasing down below the zone. He just ended up attacking the zone a little more, and put us on our heels a little bit.”

Of his nine total strikeouts, Brown issued five with his fastball, two with his knuckle curve and one with a sinker. White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. had been swinging an especially hot bat, but Brown was responsible for three of Robert’s four strikeouts on the day.

A bright spot for the White Sox lineup on Saturday was Andrew Vaughn with two hits and two RBI. He’s still batting just .174 with a .490 OPS, but Vaughn has six hits in the last six games.

“He looked good, using the whole field, staying through the baseball,” Venable said. “He's been taking some good swings, so I'm happy for him that he got some results.”

The Astros clawed back from an early deficit, in large part thanks to a career day from Meyers. He put Houston on the board in the third inning with a solo home run off a slider down the middle from White Sox starter Davis Martin.

Meyers worked a 10-pitch at-bat his next time up before driving a Martin fastball to the right-center field gap for a two-RBI triple. Martin acknowledged he made a mistake against Meyers in the first at-bat, but thought he set up and executed his pitches well his second time facing Meyers.

“This is the major leagues, one through nine can beat you,” Martin said. “And he beat me.”

Martin finished with five innings, eight hits, three earned runs, zero walks and five strikeouts. He’s been happy with the movement metrics, velocity and location that have come with his new slider grip, though there’s always something to work on.

"It was grindy, I think that's the best way to put it,” Martin said of his start. “A lot of singles, some mistakes here and there. But on the flip side of that, I'm really happy with how we battled. A lot of 3-2 counts, made some pitches when we had to to kind of minimize some damage in the first. Definitely good and bad. Some good things to take from it, some bad things to learn from."

White Sox reliever Penn Murfee got the next shot at Meyers with two outs in the sixth after left-hander Fraser Ellard put runners on first and second base with back-to-back walks. Murfee’s sweeper backed up and caught the inside part of the plate, and Meyers hammered it 409 feet for a three-run home run.

Jake Meyers blasts his 2nd homer of the day and has driven in all 6 runs for the @Astros 🤯 pic.twitter.com/QIWHAQKJ0F
— MLB (@MLB) May 3, 2025

After facing two right-handers in his first three at-bats, the White Sox tried lefty Jared Shuster against Meyers in the eighth. But that didn’t work either. Meyers ripped Shuster’s fastball to the left-center field wall, driving in his seventh run of the day to give the Astros an 8-3 lead.

Meyers finished 4-for-4 with two home runs, a triple, a double and a career-high seven RBI. He came up a single shy of the cycle, though his final stat line was perhaps even more impressive. He tied a franchise record with 13 total bases.

“We tried everything we had there [against Meyers],” Venable said. “Give him different looks and he was able to put really good swings on mistakes over the plate, so credit to him. And unfortunately, we just weren't able to get him out.”

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