Morton continues hot streak, propels Orioles to sweep of White Sox with 3-2 win

The Orioles 41-year-old followed up on an excellent May with his best start of the season as Baltimore completed its first sweep.

Charlie Morton delivered his second consecutive quality start, and the offense did just enough, as the Orioles earned their first sweep of the season with a 3-2 win over the White Sox.

Not that long ago, much of Birdland was calling for Morton to be DFA’d. After another excellent start on Sunday, Morton is proving the Orioles right for keeping him around and letting him work through his first-month struggles.

For the second start in a row, Morton had his A+ curveball working and it made all the difference against the White Sox. The 41-year-old was consistently working his curveball to both sides of the plate. Against lefties, he consistently dotted the outside edge of the plate with back-door curveballs, but was equally adept at burying the breaking ball down and in.

He ran into his first bit of trouble in the 2nd thanks to a lead-off single from Andrew Benintendi and a two-out walk of Luis Robert Jr. Needing an out to keep things tied at 0-0, Morton buried a back-foot curveball to White Sox catcher Edgar Quero for the inning-ending punch out.

Against right-handers, the 18-year veteran generated a lot of weak contact by constantly working away. He threw a couple of great cutters in the zone to keep opposing RHBs off balance and behind in the count. The curveball was still a great weapon in right-on-right matchups, as he got Miguel Vargas to end the 1st and 3rd on popped-up curveballs thrown down and away.

Morton also found a lot of success throwing his fastballs on the outer half against Chicago’s lineup. He struck out Joshua Palacios looking in the 2nd on a fastball perfectly placed low and away. He’d get another punch out against Mike Tauchman in the 3rd when the White Sox’ DH swung through a fastball just off the outside edge. He’d then pick up his third K on a fastball in the 5th, K’ing No.9 hitter Josh Rojas on a two-seamer that ran over the up-and-away outside corner.

The only real trouble for Morton came in the 6th. Benintendi led of the inning with a single off one of Morton’s few hanging curves. The White Sox LF then moved to second on a balk, and came around to score on a grounder that Jackson Holliday let skip under his glove at second. Morton didn’t let the unearned run phase him, as he’d come back to punch out Quero again to seal another quality start.

Tony Mansolino showed the renewed faith the O’s have in Morton when he sent him back out in the 7th. The right-hander got two flyouts from Rojas and Chase Meidroth before Mansolino finally pulled him, with the 41-year-old leaving to a standing ovation from the Camden Yard faithful. Morton finished with a final line of 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB and 7 K. The 6.2 innings is a season high for baseball’s second-oldest pitcher and it’s the second time he’s registered 7+ strikeouts.

Offensively, the O’s did just enough to squeak out another win against the AL’s worst team. The game started with some of the Orioles’ patented poor batted ball luck. Jackson Holliday led off the bottom of the 1st with a laser hit to the gap in right-center field. The fly ball had an exit velocity of 102mph and an expected batting average of .620, but ended up as a flyout to the warning track.

Two batters later, Gunnar Henderson smoked a first-pitch fastball off the wall in right field for one of the loudest singles you’ll see all season. As Jim Palmer said on the broadcast, Gunnar hit the ball too hard for it to get out of the park, with the 105mph liner ricocheting off the out-of-town scoreboard. Instead of a 2-0 lead on a ball that would’ve been a homer in 16 parks, Baltimore had runners first and third with one out. Ryan O’Hearn couldn’t score a run on a shallow fly to center and Coby Mayo struck out to end the threat.

Baltimore finally took a lead thanks to some small ball in the 3rd. Maverick Handley led off the inning with another long and loud single, blasting a hanging breaking ball off the base of the left field wall on a fly ball that would’ve gone out in 22 other parks. Holliday followed it up with a double down the right field line to put two runners in scoring position, and Ramón Urías flipped a single into center to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

Henderson followed Urías’ softly hit single with a floater of his own into center as the O’s loaded the bases with no outs. Ryan O’Hearn would plate Holliday on a sac fly down the left field line, but it turned out to be another scoring opportunity largely wasted. With bases loaded and no out you expected to get more than one run, but one was all Baltimore managed after back-to-back Ks from Mayo and Dylan Carlson ended the inning.

After the White Sox cut the 2-0 lead in half on the unearned run, Carlson provided an insurance run in the 6th. After Mayo reached on a fielder’s choice, the Orioles’ outfielder laced a ball right past second base that rolled all the way into the right-center alley. The Orioles’ rookie infielder motored all the way from first to score and gave Baltimore a 3-1 advantage.

The bullpen only had one blemish Sunday and it came right after Morton left the game. Gregory Soto came into face Tauchman and short-armed a 2-2 slider right into the DH’s wheelhouse. The eight-year vet turned on the breaking ball, sending it onto the flag court for a solo HR.

Soto got a fly out to end the 7th and then picked up the first out of the 8th on a groundout. Mansolino then turned to Andrew Kittredge, who got two groundouts on three pitches to keep the Orioles’ lead intact.

With Félix Bautista having pitched both Friday and Saturday, the O’s turned to Bryan Baker in the 9th. Baker struck out Robert looking on a 3-2 fastball to kick off the final frame and then got Quero to pop out. Down to their last out, Chicago turned to Rojas, who struck out on a 98mph fastball in on his hands to seal the Orioles’ victory.

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The sweep is the Orioles’ first since the final series of 2024 in Minnesota. It’s also only the second time this season the Orioles have a three-game winning streak. Baltimore will look to extend the streak to four Tuesday in Seattle, when Tomoyuki Sugano kicks off a six-game West Coast road trip against the Mariners.