The chances of the White Sox setting a new franchise record for longest losing streak this year were dealt a mighty blow Wednesday night. With only 22 games left in the season, they will have to lose out to break the mark they set last month, and a homer-happy triumph over the AL East leaders in Baltimore to avoid a season sweep proves that's not nearly the sure bet you've been led to believe.
Lil' lefties Nicky Lopez and Dominic Fletcher each lifted their first home runs of the season off Orioles starter Albert Suárez. The former yanked a honeyholed 1-0 heater out to right to lead off the game, and the latter hooked a shin-high curve around the foul pole to make it 4-1 in the fourth; the White Sox version of "breaking it open."
Suárez was not coming to the states after an MVP campaign in the KBO last year like Erick Fedde, but has been a similar level of revelation for a contending Orioles team that moved him into the rotation midstream. But after blanking the Sox for four innings in Chicago in May, Suárez entered advanced stages of not havin' it in his second trip through the order.
Before Fletcher's blast, Suárez led off the fourth by splitting the plate with a belt-high changeup that Andrew Vaughn walloped to dead center for his 16th home run of the season. After allowing the first three batters of the fifth to reach, Suárez hanging a curve that Vaughn was just under for a fly out to left ended his night before any more mistakes could catch up with him. But after a left-on-left single from Gavin Sheets off reliever Keegan Akin, usual suspect Lenyn Sosa picked Vaughn up with a bases loaded sacrifice fly off to give the league-worst offense back-to-back crooked numbers.
Pitching with a lead really lent a note of wisdom to Jonathan Cannon's blizzard of weak contact. Four outings removed from his last quality start, Cannon only generated four swinging strikes on 95 pitches, but his elevated mid-90s four-seamer was consistently popped up by Orioles lefties, and the attention it garnered made for a lot of swings over the top of his sinkers and changeups. After 12 walks in his last four starts, Cannon's only free pass came when he missed wide with a full count fastball to Adley Rutschman, halting his night an out short of six innings of one-run ball.
Eloy Jiménez entering as a pinch hitter against lefty Fraser Ellard with a pair of runners on seemed like the setting for the sort of late-inning phantasmagoric disaster that has defined this White Sox season. But Jiménez popped up a high slider to end the sixth inning threat in a fashion that looked familiar.
After Ellard completed four outs of work, Gus Varland struck out old friend James McCann, new Orioles franchise record holder for single-season home runs from a shortstop Gunnar Henderson and Rutschman in order to continue his run as a successful bullpen waiver find. After a pair of singles and walks apiece added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth, Justin Anderson completed the final three of 10 outs of scoreless work for the oft-maligned Sox bullpen.
The victory snapped a 12-game losing streak and ensured the White Sox would not fall to 50 games out of first in the division on this night.
Bullet points:
*Brooks Baldwin was placed on the injured list with a sprained wrist and Bryan Ramos was activated minutes before first pitch. Baldwin's right hand has been bothering him since the first game of the Rangers series, but is now starting a 10-day IL stint because he was an injury replacement himself for Miguel Vargas on Tuesday night. Neither Ramos nor Vargas played, but Sosa collected three hits, scored a run and drove in two others.
"Everything is going the Sox way tonight," Steve Sone said after Sosa's ninth inning RBI single.
"How many times have you said that this year," replied John Schriffen.
"That was it," replied Stone.
*The three-homer effort was the Sox' first in 23 games, and equaled their homer output over the last 17 games.
*Fletcher added another defensive highlight to his three RBI night by gunning down Cedric Mullins at third, as he tried to advance on a lineout to right. The double play ended the second inning scoreless.
*Luis Robert Jr. made a leaping catching at the wall in the fifth to rob Mullins of extra bases--possibly four of 'em. Alongside a pair of doubles, a run and an RBI, and Robert had a night of looking like one of the most dynamic players on the field again. But then his slow 90 up the first base line in the sixth to beat out an inning-ending double play ball was overturned on review to wipe a run off the board, and he was lifted for what the team called right hamstring soreness afterward. In a more optimistic year, this would ruin the night. In 2024, it merely means the game hit its quota for misfortune.
Andrew Benintendi was the only Sox starter without a hit, but drew a pair of walks, and the 15 hits were the most for the offense in 21 games. Nicky Lopez paced the team with three knocks alongside a walk, while Henderson went 3-for-4 with a solo homer off Cannon. In a battle of two different types of leadoff men, they battled to a draw.
