Sometimes, all it takes is one big hit to make all the difference. The Orioles were limited to just seven hits in Monday’s game against the White Sox, not a great effort by the offense and one that will often put you in the loss column. It didn’t, though, because one of their hits was a home run by Colton Cowser after two men were already on base. This homer in the sixth broke a 1-1 tie and proved the difference as the O’s took down the White Sox in the opener of their three-game set.
The pitching
helped. Kyle Bradish, making his fourth start back from Tommy John surgery, battled some shaky command and transparently terrible home plate umpiring to turn in a solid five innings with just one run allowed. Kade Strowd pitched a scoreless sixth inning and closing it out, Dietrich Enns pitched three perfect innings in his native Illinois to collect his second save of the season. Count it in the win column.
You can look at the line score for the game and see that Bradish allowed a run on four hits and four walks in the contest, while picking up nine strikeouts over five innings. Four walks? That’s not great. One of these walks was to the game’s first White Sox batter, Mike Tauchman, and the pitches looked like this:
Note pitch seven, well within the strike zone, yet strangely called a ball by the umpire for a leadoff walk. Tauchman reaching base here ended up being significant because, after Bradish got two outs, he gave up consecutive singles and the second of these brought Tauchman home to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. The run-scoring single, hit by Curtis Mead, was aided by right fielder Tyler O’Neill getting a poor read on the contact.
The first seven Orioles batters of the game went down in order before starting to make things happen. Samuel Basallo drew a walk with one out in the third inning. Jackson Holliday joined him on base with two outs by drawing a walk of his own. This set up a scoring chance for Jeremiah Jackson, the most unexpectedly fun Oriole of the last month and a half. Jackson whiffed on a couple of curveballs, then connected on an 0-2 fastball to smoke a grounder back through the middle. This scored Basallo easily to tie the game at 1-1.
Gunnar Henderson followed Jackson with a prime chance to add more, two men in scoring position, but with two out, he’d need a hit to make that happen. He didn’t. 1-1 is where the score remained.
Bradish and White Sox bulk reliever Sean Burke traded zeroes for a couple of innings, with Bradish mostly working around jams, including a third inning where he walked two more batters (one of which featured more questionable calls,) and a fifth inning where Bradish was able to work around allowing a leadoff double to #9 batter Dominic Fletcher. In all, it took him 88 pitches to get through his five innings. There will be more efficient games. In the circumstances, he did well for himself.
The score remaining tied set up the Orioles to eventually take the lead with Cowser’s big swing. They had to spark a rally from nothing, beginning with two outs. Coby Mayo kept the top of the sixth inning going by drawing a walk. Basallo fought off some tough pitches before pulling a grounder into right field for a single. That brought up Cowser for what turned into his clutch plate appearance.
Cowser faced an 0-2 count after two pitches and he had to foul off two pitches just to stay alive for a chance to do something good. Sox lefty Tyler Alexander – brought in just for Basallo and Cowser, the lefty batters – threw Cowser a sinker that didn’t sink enough. Cowser reached out for it and was able to drive the ball towards left field, where the fly ball just kept carrying and carrying and eventually cleared the fence for a three-run homer. You could call it a cheapie and you wouldn’t be wrong. It still counts.
As we have seen amply demonstrated throughout the season, the Orioles bullpen is short on reliable relievers. This was true even before several guys were traded away in July and has been only even more true since. Some nights, interim manager Tony Mansolino does not press the right buttons as he tries to contend with this reality. Some nights, he keeps it simple and it works.
Monday was a keep it simple night. Enns pitched a perfect inning without throwing too many pitches, so he stayed in for a second inning, also perfect. Still not at an excessive pitch count for a multi-inning-capable reliever, Enns returned for the ninth. That was perfect too. Nine up and nine down, with four strikeouts, to preserve a 4-1 victory.
With the win, the Orioles are 70-80 for the season. A winning season is still technically possible if they run the table from here. That won’t happen, of course. I believe they will be mathematically eliminated from the postseason the next time the Astros win a game or the Orioles lose one. Either of those could happen on Tuesday night. Dean Kremer and Shane Smith are scheduled as the starting pitchers for a 7:40 game as the series continues.
