The Orioles wanted to give the White Sox the series, but the White Sox wouldn't let them.
After weathering five tough innings from changeup specialist John Means, the Sox had a couple opportunities against the leaky Baltimore bullpen. Alas, the Sox couldn't capitalize, and now they're 4-5 in the softest stretch of their schedule.
In the sixth, they had the bases loaded and one out, and Evan Marshall spotted the Sox a run by plunking Ryan Cordell to make it 4-2. Marshall came back to strike out Jose Rondón, and when Nicky Delmonico pinch-hit for Adam Engel, Paul Fry came in to turn him around and induced an inning-ending groundout.
The ninth felt worse. Leury García led off by cuing a Mychal Givens pitch just over third base for a leadoff double. Two batters later, Jose Abreu drove him home with a sliced double to the left-center gap. Givens then did the Sox a favor by moving Abreu to third on a wild pitch during his battle with James McCann. With the infield in, McCann couldn't lay off an outside slider for the strikeout. With the infield back, Richie Martin had enough time to flag down Yoan Moncada's grounder on the right side of second, making a sliding stop and throw to end the game.
The White Sox were 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position, stranding 11.
That was the bigger issue than pitching, although it didn't help that Ervin Santana put them in a hole right away. He let the Orioles have some two-out magic when he gave up two doubles and a single for two runs and a quick 2-0 lead in the first, and Baltimore held the lead the rest of the way.
Joey Rickard then greeted Santana with a triple in the second and scored on a sac fly to make it 3-0.
Much like his last start, Santana eventually settled in, even if it was too late for a quality start. He retired 10 of 11 at one point, but the one exception was something. Stevie Wilkerson was awarded first base when home plate umpire Chad Fairchild thought a ball in the dirt hit his foot. The replay showed it didn't, so Wilkerson returned to the batter's box after a successful Rick Renteria challenge.
Wilkerson then took Santana deep for his first career homer.
Nevertheless, he settled down enough to make it a surprise when Renteria pulled him one out shy of five innings, and at just 71 pitches. Trey Mancini kept the fifth alive with a single, and Renteria decided to be proactive by going to Jace Fry.
Santana might object to the move, but the bullpen rewarded Renteria's decision by keeping the O's to zeroes the rest of the way. Jose Ruiz even threw a scoreless inning.
Bullet points:
*Moncada ended up avoiding striking out for a second straight game and drawing a walk, but he also stranded five.
*Abreu drove in seven runs over the three-game set, so hopefully he can carry that performance to better pitching staffs.
*Welington Castillo had an infield single, which seems worth noting.
Record: 9-14 | Box score
