The White Sox’s 5-1 win over the Astros on Tuesday night had more than one awkward moment attached to it, and the loudest one came from the broadcast booth.
Jose Altuve lifted a routine fly ball to center field, where Chicago outfielder Tristan Peters got under it and made the catch. What should have been a nothing play turned into a viral gaffe when White Sox play-by-play announcer John Schriffen tried to say the batter was retired and instead called Altuve the r-word by mistake.
Baseball fans caught it right away, and the slip immediately drew comparisons to a well-known booth blunder. Orioles announcer Gary Thorne once mixed up “retired” on Albert Pujols, and that 2015 clip has stuck around online ever since.
The miscue came during a night that went in Chicago’s favor on the field. Sean Burke held Houston scoreless over 5.2 innings, and Altuve finished 0-for-3 as the White Sox evened the series with the 5-1 victory. Houston had opened the four-game set with a 6-3 win on Monday.
The result also tightened things in the AL West, where the Astros’ lead is down to one game. The division remains crowded with every team sitting around or below .500 and carrying a negative run differential.
Houston and Texas were supposed to control the race, but both clubs have fallen well short of that expectation. The source of the mess isn’t just the standings, either: three of the five teams in the division have already fired their general managers this season.
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