A blown save is never acceptable, but there are two occasions where it's easier to tolerate after the smoke clears.
The first is when something cooler happens to result in the victory. The other is when the All-Star break gives everybody four days to shake it off.
Liam Hendriks benefits from both. After Hendriks gave up a game-tying homer to Trey Mancini with two outs in the ninth, Adam Engel hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the 10th. That survived a few deep flies on Baltimore's half to stand as the difference, and so the White Sox closed out the first half of the season with a sweep.
This could have been so much more straightforward, because Dylan Cease and three White Sox relievers held the Orioles hitless from the second inning on. Hendriks almost did the same, striking out the first two batters he faced. Instead of setting up a third straight hitter with a fastball, he threw a get-me-over slider to Ryan McKenna, who lined it into center field to keep the game alive. Hendriks then resumed throwing fastballs to Mancini, but one on a 1-1 count was thigh-high and over the outer half, and Mancini redirected it just over the scoreboard in right to tie the game.
Engel ensured the Orioles couldn't dish two-out heartbreak without taking some. While Tyler Wells walked Yoán Moncada to start the 10th (and a third inning of work for himself), he struck out José Abreu and induced a deep-but-playable flyout from Brian Goodwin.
Up came Engel, and Wells tried to maintain his attack of high fastballs, but the first three ended up above the zone. A fourth barely clipped the upper edge for a strike, but that ended up to Engel's benefit. When a fifth high fastball dropped to the upper-third of the zone, Engel launched it over the wall in left center for a three-run homer for another lead.
This one stuck, despite Tony La Russa being fresh out of his best relievers. José Ruiz only retired one of the three batters he faced -- a single, a deep sac fly, and a walk -- to leave the last two outs to Matt Foster. Five pitches got the job done, with Anthony Santander hitting a routine lineout to left, and DJ Stewart's bid to win the game landing 407 feet away from home plate, but to the part of the park that runs 410. Engel caught the ball in front of the marker to end it.
Had Hendriks gotten the job done, Andrew Vaughn would've been the story. Two of his swings accounted for the first four Sox runs. A solo shot in the fourth -- measuring a career-best 447 feet -- accounted for the only run off an effectively wild Spenser Watkins. Two innings later, lefty Paul Fry plunked Engel and walked Leury García with one out in the sixth, prompting Brandon Hyde to go to his bullpen for Cole Sulser. Sulser fell behind 3-1, and a fifth-pitch fastball cleared the wall in right center for the White Sox's first three-run homer and a 4-2 lead.
It put Cease in position for the win, which he would've deserved after a rocky start to his afternoon. He opened by allowing a bunt single and a two-run homer, then kept the Orioles hitless over the remainder of his five innings, issuing two walks and an HBP amid six strikeouts. It wasn't his most dominant forms in terms of whiffs, but it was a successful way to close out a first half, especially while his spin rate remains diminished.
Michael Kopech struck out the side yet again, Codi Heuer worked around a leadoff single, and Garrett Crochet struck out a pair himself. Had Hendriks gotten the job done, Cease would have improved to 8-4 on the season. Instead, he'll have to settle for lowering his ERA to 4.11.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox hadn't swept the Orioles at Camden Yards since 2005, for those of you who are into omens.
*The Peter Principle prevented Ruíz from recording his first career save, but not Foster.
*A first-inning threat was defused by Austin Hays, who gunned down Moncada as he tried to tag on a fly to medium right with one out in the first. He made the third out instead.
*Seby Zavala committed his first error on a wild throw to second after a wild pitch in the first inning, but it didn't lead to another run.
*The White Sox closed out the first half with a five-game winning streak, which puts the eight games ahead of a Cleveland team whose game was rained out.
