Poor Phillies: two games, two knuckleballers - MLB

R.A. Dickey pitch.jpg Something I hadn’t noticed until Major League Baseball’s tweeting logo told me about it: tonight, for the second straight game, the Phillies will be facing a knuckleballer. Sunday it was the Knuckle Knuckle King, tonight it will be R.A. Dickey.

Wakefield obviously disrupted the Phillies’ offensive flow on Sunday, but (a) Dickey doesn’t have the kind of knuckle-fu that Wakefield has; and (b) knuckleballs are one of those things that work nicely as, um, a changeup. If you saw it every day, however, you’d probably start teeing off on it — or walking 16 times a game — sooner rather than later.

Of course it’s also possible that the Phillies will go nuts on it, swinging with great vengeance and furious anger and end up looking like the Gashouse Gorillas flailing ineffectually at Bugs Bunny’s powerful, paralyzing, perfect pachydermous percussion pitch.

It’ll be fun to watch, either way.

HOUSTON – Yordan Alvarez hit a go-ahead three-run double in the seventh inning, and the Houston Astros rallied past the Chicago White Sox 6-3 on Friday night for their first win of the season.

Kyle Tucker hit a two-run homer in the sixth and made a spectacular catch at the wall in the seventh to rob Andrew Benintendi of extra bases and keep the World Series champion Astros within one run.

Eloy Jimenez hit two RBI doubles for the White Sox, both off Astros starter Cristian Javier.

Jimenez’s first double scored Tim Anderson in the first inning. In the sixth, Javier gave up three straight doubles to Benintendi, Jimenez and Joan Moncada to make it 3-0 and end his night.

White Sox reliever Kendall Graveman (0-1) loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh on two walks and a single. Jake Diekman came on and gave up Alvarez’s double to deep left-center, a drive that just eluded Luis Robert Jr. and bounced off the wall, clearing the bases.

Four Astros relievers each worked one scoreless inning. Seth Martinez (1-0) got the win and Rafael Montero handled the ninth for his first save.

Chicago starter Lance Lynn allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings.

ALL IN A DAY’S REST

White Sox INF Andrew Vaughn, who hit a go-ahead two-run double in Thursday’s season-opening win, did not play. Vaughn experienced lower back issues during spring training. Gavin Sheets started at first base.

HOMETOWN HIT

Astros outfielder Corey Yulks, a Houston-area native, singled in his first at-bat and finished 1-for-4 in his major league debut.

PUT A RING ON IT

Astros owner Jim Crane and his wife, Whitney, presented the team and staff with their 2022 World Series rings in a pregame ceremony.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Astros: LHP Blake Taylor, who is on the 15-day injured list with a left elbow strain, began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sugar Land.

UP NEXT

The four-game season-opening series continues Saturday when Houston’s Jose Urquidy faces Chicago’s Lucas Giolito.