Sports Desk
New York: 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.
