HOUSTON — Dallas Keuchel outdueled Jose Quintana in a battle of left-handers, leading the Houston Astros to a 3-0 victory over the White Sox Saturday at Minute Maid Park.
Quintana, who left after 6 1/3 innings trailing 1-0, received no runs of support for the 16th time in his 97 career starts, all with the Sox. In seven of his nine starts this season, Quintana has received two runs or less.
Keuchel (7-1, 1.79 ERA) pitched a four-hit shutout and struck out a career high 11 while walking none. Quintana gave up one run on five hits and four runs while striking out seven.
Evan Gattis and Chris Carter hit back-to-back homes against Sox lefty Dan Jennings in the eighth to make it 3-0.
It was the second straight complete game for Keuchel.
“I don’t know if we’ve faced anyone as good as him,” Sox manager Robin Ventura said.
“There was nothing you could get a read on. He didn’t have any pattern of the way he was throwing. He just seemed to be in command the whole time with what he was throwing and how he was throwing it. He was low in the zone. Nobody really got anything good.”
The Sox were without All-Star first baseman Jose Abreu, who came out of Friday’s game here with a swollen right index finger. Avisail Garcia returned to the lineup after missing five games with a sore right knee and collected one of the Sox’ hits.
The Sox had two baserunners doubled off first base, Gordon Beckham on a fly ball to center field in the fifth and pinch runner J.B. Shuck on Adam Eaton’s soft liner to third base in the eighth inning. The Sox trailed 1-0 at the time.
“We were just trying to get something going” by having the runners in motion, Ventura said.
The Sox (22-26) and Astros (31-19) will play the rubber game of a three-game series on Sunday. Left-hander John Danks (2-4, 5.96 ERA) will oppose Astros right-hander Roberto Hernandez (2-3, 4.77).
