It felt like the White Sox (57-95) were dead in the water after seven innings, but they came almost all the way back while down six runs in the bottom of the eighth. The Good Guys ultimately couldn’t get it done in the ninth, however, and came up one run short in their 8-7 loss to the Orioles (71-80). Shane Smith has been outstanding as of late, but had a bit of a weird night Tuesday. He was tagged for six runs on nine hits in his 4 1/3 innings — five of which were extra-base hits — but he also struck
out seven batters before earning his eighth loss of the season.
Smith was efficient with those Ks, which helped him cruise right through the first two innings by striking out four of the first six batters he faced, including Jackson Holliday to lead off the game. He walked Jordan Westburg to begin the second inning, but rebounded by striking out the next two batters. Smith allowed a hit before getting the third out, but escaped the mini jam with ease.
In the bottom of the first, the South Side offense wasted no time getting started behind Smith. Chase Meidroth kept his hot streak rolling by driving a base hit into left field — his 12th game in a row with a hit, and has posted one in every game this month thus far except September 3 against the Twins. Up next was Kyle Teel, who has been struggling a bit over the last week or so, but he definitely wasn’t riding the struggle bus tonight! He mashed a 406-foot, two-run bomb out to center for his eighth of the season, giving the Good Guys a 2-0 lead.
Just a couple of batters later, Miguel Vargas sent another deep fly out to the warning track, JUST barely missing a homer. The White Sox otherwise were retired in order after the Teel bomb, but the two runs behind Smith were a great start. They didn’t have the same vibe going into the next inning, though Lenyn Sosa did lead off the second with a base hit and was able to get into scoring position on a wild pitch from Dean Kramer. Edgar Quero drew a walk to put two on with just one out, leaving a prime scoring opportunity for the South Siders. Instead, Brooks Baldwin grounded into a double play to end the inning. Whomp whomp.
It seemed that the Orioles started to figure out Smith as they turned the lineup over for their second attempt. A leadoff double by Dylan Carlson put Smith in a rocky situation with the top of the order coming up, but he was able to strike out Holliday for the second time in the game. Sadly, the next few batters didn’t roll over the same way, and on the next at-bat, the Orioles cut the lead in half. Jeremiah Jackson ripped an RBI double, and Gunnar Henderson followed suit by driving in the game-tying base hit to left, 2-2. The Sox nearly turned a double play to get out of the inning, but Sosa completely whiffed on a short-hopped throw from Meidroth; this at least ended up causing no damage as Smith was able to force a pop out to get out of the inning.
Baltimore bats stayed hot into the next frame, packing a one-two punch from Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. Mayo reached on his second hit of the night, and Basallo blasted a two-run homer nearly to the concourse in right field, landing in Section 108 on their bobble head night; how kind of the Orioles to send their own souvenir out there. Smith got out of it without any further runs scoring, but the Good Guys were officially trailing, 4-2.
Smith came back out to start the fifth, but he wouldn’t make it to the end of the frame before Will Venable went to the bullpen. Once again, Jackson and Henderson rolled through the same playbook as the third inning, as Jackson launched his second double of the day to lead it off, and Henderson once again drove him in for his second RBI tonight — extending the Baltimore lead over the Good Guys, 6-2.
That right there is what triggered the bullpen, and lefthander Fraser Ellard was called upon to get the final two outs of the fifth. Cowser hit a grounder to Meidroth at second, and Chase was able to make a sharp throw to the plate to get the second out — we love a smooth defensive play. Ellard got out of it on the next at-bat with a deep fly out to Andrew Benintendi in left, hoping that the offense would finally wake up and join the party.
Ellard came back out for the sixth, and retired Basallo to start the inning, but proceeded to load the bases in the blink of an eye on a base hit and back-to-back walks. Things were quite dicey, but Ethan Katz and Venable decided to let him deal with it on his own, likely because the arm barn wasn’t ready to go yet. In a stroke of good luck, Henderson lined out to Sosa at first, who was able to make an unassisted double play and end the inning.
Now, (if we must) let’s get back to the South Side offense. Spoiler alert: they were absolutely nowhere to be found for five innings after Teel blasted that two-run bomb that felt like an eternity ago. Teel had posted his second hit of the night in the third, which was the only thing that broke up the would-be 1-2-3 inning. Don’t worry, though, they also went down in order in the fourth and fifth to make up for it. This game was starting to feel a lot of deja vu from Monday night’s game, as the White Sox scored in the first, then never again. They did score again tonight, but did they win? Still no.
It finally felt like they had something going in the sixth, but they still foiled yet again with runners in scoring position. Colson Montgomery and Mike Tauchman both walked to put two runners on with two outs, causing the Orioles to call to the bullpen for the first time of the night. A wild pitch allowed both runners to advance into scoring position for Sosa — who has been one of the best and most consistent hitters this season — but he ended up striking out, adding another big, fat zero to the White Sox box score.
Making his 15th appearance this season, righthander Wikelman González was in charge of the seventh inning in place of Ellard, but sadly, the Orioles got to him, too, and added two more tallies to the score, 8-2. He walked the first batter, but served up a meatball to Dylan Beavers, who launched a two-run shot that extended the lead to six.
Tyler Alexander took over in the eighth, and finally, we had an uneventful inning without any Baltimore runs scoring. Alexander worked through two outs, allowed the third hit of the night to Henderson, but easily got the last one to push the game back into the batters’ hands.
Perhaps the White Sox were just saving all of their offense for late in the game, because with the help of the Orioles’ pitching staff, they went on a five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth to bring the game within one. Meidroth started out by reaching base with a walk, but both Teel and Montgomery made the first two outs. This is when Baltimore became the giver of gifts, as the inning was prolonged by a wild pitch on Vargas striking out, which ended up scoring Meidroth and replenishing the base paths.
Tauchman followed that up with a two-out single, but Chayce McDermott glitched on the mound and balked pretty badly, putting both runners into scoring position. It was about time that the South Siders took advantage of the situation, and Sosa followed through with a two-run base hit out to left, making it 8-5. The Orioles went to the bullpen after that, but it didn’t matter since Benintendi mashed his 20th home run of the season to dead center, bringing the Sox within one, 8-7. It seemed like Quero might have gotten a hold of a game-tying homer on the next at-bat, but he flew out on the warning track on a ball that had a .490 xBA.
Brandon Eisert was lights out for the ninth and went scoreless with one strikeout to hold the deficit to one and give the South Siders a chance to tie or win the game. With one out, Meidroth reached base for the third time in an effort to get a rally going, but Teel and Montgomery struck out to end the game. Both were taking some BIG swings, but they didn’t pay off this time, and Keegan Akin’s fastball dominated them for two strikeouts. The Sox went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and it’s about time they scored more than one or two runs, as their seven runs on Tuesday outscored their total over the past five games.
The Good Guys officially lost the series and are now riding a five-game losing streak. This setback is going to make finishing better than 100 losses quite tricky, especially with the San Diego Padres coming into town later this week. Let’s hope they snap the streak tomorrow and get set up for a better series this weekend to cap off the year at home.
