If baseball games were like pickle jars, Miguel Vargas could argue that he loosened it. As just before Colson Montgomery stayed on lefty Grant Wolfram's slider for a two-out go-ahead RBI double to center that put the Sox up for good, Vargas put the Orioles reliever through an 11-pitch war that ended with a routine fly out to right, but still might have strained the victor.
But still another narrative thread to the triumphant six-run outburst in the final two innings is that despite the White Sox emphasis on having catchers use their challenges, and without worry about saving them for later, Randal Grichuk found use in keeping some powder dry for a late rally.
Starting against a righty for a banged-up Andrew Benintendi, Grichuk followed Montgomery's breakthrough by reversing the calls on two consecutive Rico Garcia sliders off the plate into balls, countering a Bruce Dreckman strike zone that was goofy all night. The breaker that Grichuk wound up smacking up the middle for an insurance RBI single was still on the outside edge, but he was ahead of the counter when he fired on it.
Or we could just note that the two-run eighth that set up Grant Taylor for the win after another two innings of breathing fire, started as many good things do, with Sam Antonacci absorbing 96 mph to the center mass to get on base.
But having done some Baltimore sports radio this afternoon, I would imagine their focus would be on still another crucial stretch, where the left side of the Orioles infield biffed two balls in the ninth that allowed Bryan Hudson to sit down in the bullpen, and for Will Venable to finish out the night with Brandon Eisert striking out the side.
After Tristan Peters led off the ninth with a single off Yennier Cano, Gunnar Henderson whiffed on his pick of a weird Chase Meidroth chopper/double to put runners on second and third. For the second time in three days, that set up Jacob Gonzalez to slap a run-scoring single past a drawn-in infield, plating two this time. Antonacci reset the same situation with a double to left-center, but Vargas' low smash didn't have the same luck, and the Orioles brought in lefty Josh Walker to strike out Montgomery. Just when they looked to be on the verge of keeping it in slam range, Walker got Teel to poke an 0-2 slider toward third, Blaze Alexander to whiffed on the short hop for a two-run error to empty out the stands for the bottom half of the frame.
Teel can't complain about the official scorer too much, because his third inning infield chopper that couldn't be corralled by Orioles starter Shane Baz went down as an RBI single that briefly put the Sox up 2-1. Instead, Gonzalez had the Sox' only multi-hit performance of the night, as he drilled a first-pitch Baz fastball earlier in the frame for an RBI double to right-center that scored Meidroth after a leadoff walk. After roughing him up in Tampa last July, that was the only damage the Sox managed off seven innings of Baz despite some other chances, but their opportunity conversion rate wound up balancing out later.
There are probably a lot of stories like this behind every 5 1/3-inning long starts with two runs across, but Sean Burke had good stuff and did well to wriggle out of his biggest jams with reasonable damage. It's just that his worst trouble was self-induced, when he lost a pair of seven-pitch battles for walks on either side of a Jackson Holliday ground ball single to load the bases with no one out to open the third, with the heart of the order looming. A Taylor Ward lineout to Vargas at third was followed by an Adley Rutschman sacrifice fly to re-tie it at 2, and by the time Burke got Pete Alonso to chase a slider down and away to end the threat, both sides had an outcome they could live with.
That inning, like his outing as whole, worked out OK given how it started. Gunnar Henderson started Burke's night by staying with an outside sinker to lash a leadoff double down the left field line, before advancing on a Ward fly out to center and scoring on the first of Rutschman's two sac flies. For his third-straight outing, Burke 96 mph and his results reflected the extra life. He struck out eight, and what loud contact he endured was swung under, with Peters slamming into the wall as he hauled in Dylan Beavers' fourth inning drive to center, and Alonso's sixth inning fly out being projected to be out to left in four of 30 MLB ballparks, but certainly not renovated Camden Yards.
In a less close game, Burke was pitching well enough to avoid needing Chris Murphy to get the last two outs of the sixth. But that would only be a decision worth ruminating upon for a game with a less pleasing finish.
Bullet points:
*Try as he might, Grichuk's 2-for-2 showing couldn't hold a candle to Teel's ABS performance. He went 4-for-4, including reversing the call on an Eisert slider at the knees to end the night. The one Sox miss only further validated Teel, as Burke made the call himself on a fastball that missed the corner by an eyelash.
*Montgomery's slide into home on Grichuk's RBI single might have been up for replay review, had the ball not leaked out of Rutschman's glove on impact.
*Per the way Baseball Reference counts it, the White Sox are exactly around league average with 24 outs on the bases, but after trying unsuccessfully to score from second on Teel's infield single to end the the third, Vargas has made one each of the last three games.
*The Sox already had an outfielder on the concussion IL after slamming into a wall before Peters had his hat knocked off by the impact when he chased down Beavers' fourth inning drive to center, but staying in for the rest of the game, singling and scoring in the ninth would suggest he's fine.
*This victory snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Orioles.
