Nothing goes right for Orioles as Baltimore falls to lowly White Sox 8-1

Albert Suárez put up one of his worst starts of the season and the bats went silent as Chicago staved off their 110th loss of the season.

A day after a dominant win that put them in first place, everything went wrong for the Orioles in a 8-1 loss to the MLB-worst White Sox.

Early on, it felt like the game was set for a similar script to Monday’s 13-3 win. Nicky Lopez led off the game with a solo HR to right-center as Baltimore fell behind in the 1st inning for the second time in three games. And yet, everything felt like it would be ok when Gunnar Henderson stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the 1st and cranked his 35th HR on a 3-1 cutter to tie the game.

The long ball set an Orioles franchise record, passing Miguel Tejada and Cal Ripken for most HRs in a season by a SS. It also seemed like it’d set up the Orioles for another delayed offensive explosion. However, those runs never came.

The White Sox, on the other hand, continued to rain down home runs against Albert Suárez and the O’s. After giving up the leadoff blast to Lopez, it looked like the O’s de facto ace would settle back into his dominant ways. He put away the next three batters in the first inning on a pop-up, a fly out and a ball tapped back to the pitcher.

Suárez cruised through the 2nd inning on only six pitches thanks to an inning-ending double play. He gave up a walk and a two-out double in the 3rd but was able to get Andrew Benintendi to lineout to second to strand the runners.

That double proved to be a warning shot from the White Sox offense. Andrew Vaughn led off the 4th a solo home run that he crushed into the center field bleachers. After Lenyn Sosa slashed a single the other way into right, Dominic Fletcher golfed a low curveball over the flag court and around the foul pole for a two-run homer that gave Chicago a 4-1 lead. The South Sider would chase Suárez from the game in the 5th after Lopez led off the inning with a single and then scored on a Luis Robert double.

Down 6-1 after five innings, the burden fell squarely on the Orioles’ bats to get them back in the game—and instead rookie Jonathan Cannon continued to shut them down. After giving up the home run to Gunnar to start his evening, Cannon responded by facing the minimum in innings 2-5.

The O’s had their best chance to make a dent on the White Sox lead in the sixth, as Henderson laced a two-out single to left-center and Adley Rutschman walked to move into scoring position. The White Sox went to their bullpen at that point, and Brandon Hyde countered with former White Sox Eloy Jiménez. The big slugger couldn’t victimize his former team though, lifting a weak fly ball to center to strand the runners.

Baltimore wouldn’t have another runner in scoring position until the bottom of the 9th. With Anthony Santander on second and Cedric Mullins on first, rookie Coby Mayo stepped to the plate with two outs. While a seven-run, two-out rally was never likely, Mayo couldn’t get anything going—ending the game by striking out looking.

The O’s came into this game 6-0 against the White Sox averaging 7.5 runs/game. However, like we’ve seen far too often in this second half, the bats inexplicably went silent on Wednesday in perhaps the O’s most embarrassing game of the season.

During an evening full of disappointing play, Suárez was still perhaps the most disappointing. In the lead-up to the first pitch, Ben McDonald called Suárez the best pitcher in baseball during August. It was hard to argue against Big Ben when Big Al came into Wednesday’s start with a 1.19 ERA over his last five starts. His outing against the White Sox wasn’t worthy of any superlatives, however, as he finished with a final line of 4.2 IP, 8 H, 6 ER (tying a season-high), 2 BB and 2 K.

It wasn’t just that he gave up the home runs and the big hits, but his approach didn’t seem quite as sharp as what Birdland got used to throughout August. Too many pitches hung out over the plate and he didn’t seem to adjust when the White Sox showed clear signs that they had figured out his gameplan.

Suárez couldn’t locate his changeup to lefties, constantly missing far off the outside edge. The one time he tried to throw a changeup to a right-handed hitter, he hung over the middle of the plate and Vaughn blasted it over the centerfield fence. After dominating Rockies hitters with his curveball in his last start, the 34-year-old seemed to shy away from the breaking ball altogether against Chicago.

Regardless of the approach, it’s still surprising how the White Sox got to Suárez. The Orioles right-hander had been one of the stingiest players in baseball when it came to preventing homers. In 109 innings before Tuesday’s start, Suárez only allowed eight total long balls. Lopez and Fletcher’s home runs off Suárez were their first home runs all season. The idea that Big Al might run into a bad game now and then is understandable. It’s shocking (and somewhat concerning) when that bad game includes giving up three homers to the worst home-run-hitting team in baseball.

The bullpen kept the door for an Orioles comeback just slightly cracked before Cionel Pérez let it shut with a poor 9th inning. Keegan Akin allowed a hit to the first batter he faced after relieving Suárez and then gave up a sac fly that allowed Chicago to stretch the lead to 6-1. Akin would K Fletcher to end the 5th and then turn things over to Matt Bowman in the 6th. The Orioles’ newest reliever gave up back-to-back one-out hits to give Chicago runners at second and third, but then rolled a double-play ball to escape the inning unscathed.

Gregory Soto and Burch Smith would each work scoreless frames in the 7th and 8th before turning the ball over to Pérez. The volatile lefty retired the first batter he faced on a groundout back to the mound—but then seemed to fall apart after issuing a 10-pitch walk to Andrew Benintendi. Pérez gave up a single to Vaughn and a walk to Sheets to load the bases with one out. After another single by Lenyn Sosa and an RBI groundout from Fletcher, Pérez was tagged with the bullpen’s first two runs of the game and the O’s were down 8-1.

**

At the time of writing, the Yankees were trailing in Texas, meaning the Orioles could still end the evening in first despite the loss. By failing to sweep the White Sox, the O’s continue a sweepless streak that dates back to an early June series against the Rays. The win for Chicago snaps a 12-game losing streak—their third 10+ game losing streak of the season. Baltimore looks to rebound from the disappointing loss on Friday when they welcome Tampa to Camden Yards.