Orioles 3, White Sox 2: Swept away in Baltimore

Entering today's game, Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Charlie Morton was carrying an ERA north of 7.00. In recent outings, the Orioles have tried limiting the number of pitchers and batters faced to see if they can generate one more spark from the 41-year-old righty. For a Chicago White Sox team struggling to put together runs against one of the worst pitching teams in baseball, facing Morton was a hope for a remedy to leave the Queen City without getting swept. 

Just like the struggles against Dean Kremer yesterday, the White Sox bats couldn't get anything going against Morton. In his longest outing of the season, Morton held the White Sox to one unearned run over six innings, helping the Orioles complete the sweep with a 3-2 victory.

That unearned run against Morton came in the sixth inning. Andrew Benintendi, who is focusing more on OPS than batting average these days, singled to center field and advanced to second base later off a Morton balk. Later, Joshua Palacios hit a seemingly routine grounder toward Jackson Holliday at second base. Instead of getting into proper fielding position, Holliday tried to backhand the grounder and watched the roller five-hole him into the outfield, allowing Benintendi to score. 

In the seventh inning, Mike Tauchman hit his second home run of the season, a solo shot. That was the extent of the White Sox scoring as they finished the weekend only plating five runs in three games. 

While the lack of offense again will be the focal point after this weekend, it was the third start for Adrian Houser with the White Sox. Coming into the game, Houser had a 12-scoreless inning streak going. Baltimore threatened to snap it in the first inning with two hits, but Houser recovered to keep them scoreless. After a three-up, three-down second inning, Houser tied a career-high of pitching 14 scoreless innings, a mark he had only accomplished in 2021 with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

That streak of success ended when Houser allowed a deep single to Maverick Handley, leading off the third. Jackson Holliday followed that up with a hustle double, and a duck-snort single from Ramon Urias gave Baltimore a 1-0 lead. But the hits kept coming. Gunnar Henderson singled to center for Baltimore's fourth straight hit to load the bases for Ryan O'Hearn. The good news was that Houser got O'Hearn out, but the result was a sacrifice fly, giving the Orioles a 2-0 cushion. 

In the sixth inning, O'Hearn walked and later scored off a Dylan Carlson double to put Baltimore ahead 3-1. Houser did get an out in the seventh inning to finish his day with a final line of 6.1 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K on 95 pitches. It's a step back from what he'd been doing, but still a very good line for a veteran pitcher the White Sox picked up just a couple of weeks ago.

Game Notes

• White Sox pitching only allowed nine runs in this series
• Mike Tauchman went 2-for-4 with a home run and a triple. His season OPS is now 1.132.
• Andrew Benintendi and Chase Meidroth also had multi-hit games. 
• White Sox are now 6-26 on the road and 3-15 in one-run games.

Record: 18-41 | Box Score | StatCast