Two last-place teams faced off. Someone had to win. Happily, it was the Orioles.
So, it turns out that when two really bad teams play each other, there can be a lot of tension! The Orioles and White Sox were evenly matched, which led to a close game that felt like it could go either way the entire time. Zach Eflin and Sean Burke kept the game close as both offenses struggled, and the White Sox almost came back in the end against a shaky Félix Bautista.
The result was a 2-1 win for the Orioles, who guarantee themselves at least a few more days with only the second-worst record in the American League.
Zach Eflin has struggled recently, but it seems that a game against the worst offense in the American League was just what the doctor ordered. He sailed through the first five innings. Just one batter reached in that time, Lenyn Sosa. Sosa singled in the third inning, but Josh Rojas grounded into a double play on the very next pitch.
Through five, Eflin needed just 59 pitches, and that was with an 18-pitch first inning. He was on cruise control.
He finally hit a speed bump in the sixth, when Edgar Quero and Sosa hit solid singles to start the inning. The game was still scoreless at the time, and it began to feel like a movie we’d seen many times before. But then Quero went and got himself picked off. Adley Rutschman threw behind him to second base. Gunnar Henderson got the ball to Ramón Urías at third for the tag out. Sosa moved to second on the play, but it was a big out. Eflin retired the next two batters, and the threat was neutralized.
To reward him, the Orioles finally scored a couple runs. White Sox pitchers Jared Shuster (the opener) and Sean Burke weren’t as smooth as Eflin, but the results were the same through five innings. Shuster hit Jackson Holliday to start things off. Holliday stole second but was stranded.
Ryan O’Hearn singled to start the second but did not go any further. Dylan Carlson singled to start the third, but Holliday GIDP’d. Ryan Mountcastle singled in the fourth and like all runners before him, did not score. Carlson walked in the fifth. Again, nothing else. Yes, that’s right. Not a single 1-2-3 inning through five. Leadoff batter on three times out of five. No runs.
Finally, in the sixth inning, they broke through. Rutschman had a sharp single to right field and Henderson followed with a double inside the third base line. The White Sox brought the infield in for Ryan Mountcastle. Mounty hit a grounder that would have been a routine out with the fielders in regular position. It almost got past shortstop Chase Meidroth, but he made a nice diving snag. He couldn’t throw Mountcastle out, but he saved a run for the moment.
With the bases loaded and no outs, the guy you want at the plate is the guy who stepped up. Ryan O’Hearn. But alas, he failed. On the first pitch, he grounded to second base. The ball came home for the out at the plate. Come on, Ryan!
Urías picked up his teammate with a classic POFO (Productive Out for Orioles). His fly ball to right field plated Henderson, with Mountcastle moving to third base. Then they got creative and manufactured another run.
O’Hearn took off for second base, and the catcher, Quero, fired the ball across the diamond. Mountcastle raced home. The second baseman cut off the ball and threw home, but it was too late. Mountcastle was safe and the Orioles were up, 2-0. It proved to be an important run.
Eflin returned for the seventh inning and things got dicey, but ultimately he prevailed. With one out, Miguel Vargas singled ahead of Andrew Benintendi, who got to Eflin for an eight-pitch walk. He bounced back to strike out Luis Robert, Jr. and Joshua Palacios. It looked like Palacios had taken ball four just a bit outside, but home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn rang him up. Thanks, I guess.
Bryan Baker followed Eflin with a perfect eighth inning, but things weren’t as easy for Félix Bautista in the ninth. There have been a few games this year where Bautista just didn’t have it, and today was one of them. Luckily, it worked out for the Orioles in the end.
With two outs and Mike Tauchman on second base via a double, Benintendi came up again. Bautista threw him a sinker that didn’t do much sinking, and Benintendi launched it to right field. It hit the wall and bounced back to new Oriole Cooper Hummel. Tauchman scored easily and Benintendi landed on second base as the tying run.
The only thing standing between the Orioles and victory was Luis Robert, Jr. Robert has the talent but has not been able to live up to his early success the last two seasons. But he and Bautista battled. In an eight-pitch AB, Robert fouled off three pitches, one of which went just a bit foul of being a go-ahead home run. On the final pitch, Robert took a pitch up and in for ball four.
Bautista had thrown a lot of pitches and was looking tired. Seranthony Domínguez began throwing in the bullpen, but thankfully we did not have to see him. Palacios, who had been called out on on ball four in the seventh inning, came to the plate. This at-bat wasn’t as questionable. On a 2-2 count, Bautista dropped in his splitter. Palacios swung through it for strike three. Orioles win!
The Orioles beat both the White Sox and the rain tonight. Game two is tomorrow at 4 p.m. with Dean Kremer on the mound.