Wednesday afternoon game thread: vs. White Sox, 2:10 ET

It is Kyle Bradish day for the Orioles, and hopefully that is a good thing. Prior to the start of this season, you’d have bet for sure that it was, as the one-time Top 5 Cy Young Award finisher has been a dark wizard on the mound, even after missing time for Tommy John surgery. In the spring, Bradish said he felt healthier than he had in a long time, and expectations were high to match. Yet so far in two starts he’s 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA, having yet to complete five innings in either outing while walking

a highly atypical 6.23 hitters per nine innings. The velocity is back, just not the control. The White Sox, though, are probably about as good a matchup as Bradish could ask for right now: think of it as an extended spring training. A strong performance here would go a long way toward settling the question of whether the right handers’ early-season struggles are a sign of something concerning or just early-season noise.

The Orioles batters face Sean Burke (0-1, 3.60 ERA, 12 K in 10 IP), who has looked considerably better than his rotation-mate (and yesterday’s starter) Shane Smith this season. Burke was something of a Dean Kremer-tier pitcher for the White Sox last year (4-11, 4.22 ERA, 133 K in 133.1 IP), but he’s off to a nice start in 2026, with 12 strikeouts and no home runs allowed across his first 10 innings. The key for Burke is his four-seam fastball: he relies on swings-and-misses with the heater, but his changeup is a threat, too. Burke could be a real challenge for this free-swinging Orioles lineup, which has been somewhat stymied by hard throwers this year.

The Orioles come in fresh off a win yesterday against these same White Sox, taking a 2-0 lead in the series and in a position to sweep today. A win would put this team back at .500 and give them something to feel good about heading into their next two series, rare clashes against two NL West teams, the struggling Giants and about-as-good-as-the-Orioles Diamondbacks.

Orioles lineup

1. Gunnar Henderson – DH
2. Taylor Ward – LF
3. Adley Rutschman – C
4. Pete Alonso – DH
5. Tyler O’Neill – RF
6. Ryan Mountcastle – 1B
7. Dylan Beavers – CF
8. Coby Mayo – 3B
9. Blaze Alexander – SS

White Sox lineup

1. Chase Meidroth – 2B
2. Munetaka Murakami – 1B
3. Miguel Vargas – DH
4. Colton Montgomery – 3B
5. Andrew Benintendi – LF
6. Dustin Harris – RF
7. Luisangel Acuña – SS
8. Reese McGuire – C
9. Tristan Peters – CF