Orioles 8, White Sox 6: Obstruction of Justice

South Siders drop another, as controversial obstruction call stymies late rally

Well, there was a chance! It’s truly impressive, the way the White Sox keep finding the most creative ways to lose.

Chicago had a tough assignment tonight against the reigning AL East champion Orioles, and believe it or not, they failed it. An exciting ninth inning couldn’t make up for a typically moribund opening eight, and the Sox ultimately fell, 8-6, twice bringing the winning run to the plate and failing to capitalize after trailing 8-2 entering final ups. Ryan Mountcastle notched his sixth career four-hit game for the visitors, and three runs apiece were driven in by Jorge Mateo — this recapper remembers a time when there was excitement at Mateo potentially being a part of a Todd Frazier trade — and Adley Rutschman.

Despite the timidity of the Sox lineup, Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez showed his youth tonight, struggling to hit his spots and walking five batters over five full innings. He also showed why he’s considered by many to be the cornerstone of Baltimore’s future rotations, limiting the damage to just two runs before turning it over to one of the game’s best bullpens.

Tommy Pham and Andrew Vaughn made things interesting early, taking advantage of Rodriguez’s misses over the plate for a pair of singles in the top of the first. The righty then dug the hole even deeper, losing his feel for the zone and walking Gavin Sheets to load the bases before issuing yet another free pass to Andrew Benintendi to open the scoring.

Rodriguez did manage to strike out Paul DeJong before allowing that run home, and he worked out of the jam shortly thereafter by inducing a soft ground out to end the inning, courtesy of Korey Lee, who finished 0-for-4 on the night.

In a rare showing of offensive competence, the Sox later managed to punish Rodriguez for giving them free baserunners. In the third inning, a two-out walk to Gavin Sheets turned into a run and a 2-1 lead when Benintendi came through again, putting a nice swing on a two-strike offspeed pitch for a single to center field.

Unfortunately, that was all the Sox could muster for a crowd of just more than 15,000 on this warm Thursday evening on the South Side. While Pham and Sheets both managed to reach base again on walks, other hitters failed to do any further damage against Rodriguez, who topped out at 98 mph and struck out seven, allowing just a single hit after those knocks in the first inning.

Jared Shuster played the role of Tanner Banks and Michael Soroka tonight, eating 2 1⁄3 unremarkable innings in relief with three runs to his name, all coming in the sixth inning courtesy of hits from Rutschman, Austin Hays, and Mountcastle. These are the kinds of innings that we’ll look back on in five years in the form of a Baseball-Reference page and say to ourselves, “Jared Shuster threw 60 innings for the White Sox? Huh? Who is that, and where was I?”

Hopefully, you were doing something more generative than closely following this game, but even with those three runs, Shuster’s ERA still sits at a solid 3.10. It’s not inconceivable that you’ll know his name before the next iteration of the White Sox is said and done, but with an 89 mph fastball and an arsenal that falls well short of a Buehrle, you’d be forgiven for hedging against it.

The rest of the night following Shuster’s dinging was almost entirely uneventful, which I suppose is a “no news is good news” type of situation. Tim Hill allowed a walk and a double to Hays but managed to keep Baltimore off the scoreboard, and John Brebbia did the same with a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.

The O’s excellent bullpen, meanwhile, lived up to its reputation, mostly. Danny Coloumbe, Jacob Webb, and Jonathan Heasley combined to allow just a single baserunner between the sixth and eighth, but I did say mostly, and that the rest of the evening was almost entirely uneventful. Manager Brandon Hyde tried to get an extra inning out of Heasley given the blowout, sending him out to wrap up the action in the ninth, but it didn’t go as planned. The former Kansas City farmhand making his fourth appearance in orange walked Danny Mendick and Corey Julks to lead off the ninth, and the home side finally lit up the scoreboard courtesy of, who else, Pham:

At that point, Hyde stopped playing around, turning to his All-Star setup man Yennier Canó to finish things off. Interestingly, Sheets had other plans, and after five innings of a presumed lost cause, the winning run was at the plate!

Canó bounced back to strike out the pinch-hitting Zach DeLoach, at which point Hyde once again called to the pen, this time for old friend of ours Craig Kimbrel, who quickly ended the game in the most White Sox fashion possible: A runner called out for interference on an infield fly pop up to end the game.

If anyone has the capacity left for commentary, be my guest. I guess the White Sox made Baltimore burn the back of its bullpen for a game they had in hand, so that’s cool for the next three days, I guess?

These two teams will be back at it tomorrow evening, with ace and Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes taking the bump against Chris Flexen at 6:40 p.m. CT. We’ll see you there.

Futility Watch

White Sox 2024 Record 15-36, worst 51-game start in White Sox history (one game ahead the 2018 White Sox) and tied for the 38th-worst start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Run Differential -109, tied for the 25th-worst 51-game start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Season Record Pace 48-114 (.294)
Race to the Worst “Modern” 162-Game Record (2003 Tigers, 43-119) 5 games behind
Race to the Worst “Modern” Record in a 162-Game Season (1962 Mets, 40-120) 7 games behind
Race to the Most White Sox Losses (1970, 106) 8 games ahead
Race to the Worst White Sox Record (1932, 52-109-1*) 4 1⁄2 games ahead
Race to the Worst American League Record (1916 A’s, 38-124*) 10 games behind
*record adjusted to a 162-game season