The White Sox lured the Orioles into a false sense of security by committing one mistake after another and falling into a 4-0 deficit, only to immediately roar back
Every other time they've tried that, it hasn't worked. Today it did.
The White Sox immediately bailed out Dylan Cease with a pair of two-run homers off Kyle Gibson in the top of the second, then strung together quality at-bats for three more in the third.
Cease, facing some potential accountability -- pause for laughter -- with a second chance, took advantage and avoided a crooked number for the rest of the afternoon.
The game couldn't have started much worse. Cease gave up a pair of doubles, and the mistakes started piling up on the second one. Oscar Colás made an on-target throw to second, which should've nailed Anthony Santander, but Tim Anderson dropped the ball on the tag.
An inventory of everything else that went wrong:
No. 1: Cease ignored Ryan O'Hearn at first base until O'Hearn got a huge jump toward second. That's when Cease looked back to second base, except he had to continue his motion home or accept a balk. He then fired a fastball into Cedric Mullins for a doofy-looking HBP.
No. 2: Adam Frazier singled to right, and even though O'Hearn held up, he still made it home unchallenged because Tim Anderson went to the wrong base.
No. 3: Frazier stole second even though Cease picked him off, because Andrew Vaughn froze up out of fear of allowing Mullins to score from third.
No. 4: Neither Lenyn Sosa nor Vaughn are able to catch a Jordan Westburg popup near the netting in foul territory, and Westburg hit a sac fly to center with his second life.
The White Sox were able to get the third out by correctly cutting the ball off and executing a one-throw rundown, although Orioles broadcaster Kevin Brown roasted them as the play unfolded, saying, "Let's see if the White Sox can figure this one out."
The White Sox ended up getting the last laugh. They started the second with an Eloy Jiménez single and a two-run homer by Vaughn. Yasmani Grandal then put traffic back on the basepaths with a single, and while Elvis Andrus replaced him with a fielder's choice, it still turned into a run because Colás lasered a slider out to right field to tie the game at 4.
An inning later, the Sox took the lead for good. Luis Robert Jr., tired of being thwarted by the deep cutout in left field, followed Vaughn's lead by leaving the yard right of center for a 5-4 lead, and the hits kept coming. Jiménez and Vaughn strung together doubles to left, and Elvis Andrus singled to center to make it 7-4.
Mullins mishandled that ball, but a mistake in the sixth loomed larger. Pedro Grifol was content to play small ball when he had Sosa bunt runners to second and third for the first out of the sixth, but when Tim Anderson followed with a line drive to center, Mullins got caught in between. He pulled up too late and couldn't block the ball from bounding past him, turning an RBI single into a two-run triple. Anderson came home on an Andrew Benintendi double, and that gave the Sox a truly comfortable margin.
Cease only wobbled after receiving the lead in the third inning. He gave up a solo shot to Santander that cut the score to 7-5, then walked the next batter on four pitches. His slider command improved afterward, and he limited the Orioles to a pair of walks and an infield single the rest of the way. He erased an infield single with another successful pickoff that actually resulted in an out.
Gregory Santos, pitching for the first time in a week, briefly raised tension by allowing the first two batters to reach in the ninth, but he struck out James McCann and got Adley Rutschman to ground into a double play to end the game.
Bullet points:
*Grifol lost a challenge on the first play of the game when, for the second time in the series, the cameras couldn't determine whether the first baseman lost contact with the bag stretching for the throw.
*The White Sox were 0-13 when trailing by at least three runs after the first inning, according to Chris Kamka.
*Jiménez had four hits to lead a 15-hit attack. Sosa was the only one who went hitless, but the bunt added something.
