The Orioles’ recent funk continued on Monday night as they dropped their series opener with the visiting White Sox 8-2. The Birds have now lost three in a row and five of their last six.
This game was close as could be through the first seven innings. Shane Baz was wild but effective, allowing just two runs over seven innings of work. Meanwhile, the Orioles offense blew the few chances they did create, which left no room for the bullpen to maneuver. It may not have mattered anyway since those relievers
would fall apart, serving up six runs (four earned) over the final two innings of the night.
The Orioles were actually the first ones on the board. Gunnar Henderson, hitting out of the lead-off spot in this one, began the bottom of the first inning with a double. Taylor Ward moved him to third on a fly out to center field, and then Adley Rutschman got the RBI with a sac fly to left.
Baz sailed through the first two innings before running into some trouble in the third. He issued a lead-off walk to Chase Meidroth, who then scored on a Jacob Gonzalez double. The next three hitters went as follows: flyout, walk, and strikeout to put two runners on base with two outs. The O’s starter nearly limited the White Sox to just the one run, but a Kyle Teel flair that came off the bat at just 43.7 mph got past Baz and spun out of Henderson’s hand as he tried to barehand it. That allowed the runner from third to score and give the White Sox a 2-1 lead at the time.
The Birds returned fire in the bottom of the third. Blaze Alexander led off with a walk and scooted around to third on a Jackson Holliday single into right field. Henderson followed with a walk to load the bases with no one out. Surely the Orioles would break the game open here, right? Not a chance. Ward lined out, and Rutschman got his second RBI of the day with another sac fly. But that is as much as they would get with Pete Alonso striking out to end the threat with the score knotted at two runs apiece.
That would end up being the last Orioles run of the day. From the fourth inning through the end of the day, the O’s scattered a few more baserunners on walks and singles, but they couldn’t string anything together. And they went particularly quiet in the late innings, as the final 10 O’s hitters of the game went down in order.
Henderson had himself a nice night atop the order. He went 2-for-3 with a double (the Orioles’ only extra-base hit), a walk, and a run scored. Rutschman had the two RBI. Colton Cowser walked twice and also made a nice defensive play to potentially steal a home run in the fifth inning. That was really it. As a team, the Orioles went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base. On the whole, it was a pitiful performance.
Baz was the bright spot, though he wasn’t without his warts. He gave the Orioles length with his seven innings, crossing the 100-inning threshold on the season. And he showed some grit to toss 109 pitches to get to the finish line, his highest pitch total of the season. But he also issued four walks and yet again posted mediocre whiff numbers (22%). There is no doubt that Baz has been a valuable member of the staff, but not exactly the frontline arm we were promised.
Things got ugly for the Orioles once Baz was lifted. Grant Wolfram hit the first batter he faced in the eighth inning. After a flyout to Miguel Vargas, he gave up a double to Colson Montgomery to drive in the White Sox third run of the day. Wolfram struck out Teel to end his night. Rico Garcia followed and continue his latest struggles. His fist batter, Randal Grichuk, singled to make it 4-2 before Garcia wrapped up the inning.
Yennier Cano came on for the ninth and made it even worse. The first four batters of the inning went: single, double, single, double to extend the White Sox lead to 6-2. Josh Walker would come on later in the inning and should have gotten out of the inning without allowing any more runs, but an error by Blaze Alexander on a soft liner to third base scored two more runs to give us our final score, 8-2.
This was not a completely terrible game. Baz was good on the mound. Henderson had a nice night at the plate. Cowser showed some patience and flashed in the field. But man, the stink of the bullpen really overwhelmed everything. And the offense’s general ineptitude didn’t help. Could this be the downward spiral that finally dashes the hopes of the 2026 Orioles? The trade deadline is only a month away.
This series will continue on Tuesday night in Baltimore. Trey Gibson (1-2, 5.64 ERA) is scheduled to duel with Erick Fedde (2-6, 4.34 ERA). First pitch is set for 6:35 from Camden Yards.
