The White Sox found their finishing gear at exactly the right time Friday night, turning a tight game into an 8-2 win over the Orioles with a six-run burst across the final two innings.
It took a little of everything to get there: Miguel Vargas grinding through an 11-pitch battle, Colson Montgomery driving a two-out go-ahead RBI double to center, Randal Grichuk cashing in a challenge win with an insurance RBI single, and a ninth inning that unraveled for Baltimore when the left side of the Orioles’ infield gave the Sox extra outs to work with.
Sam Antonacci helped kick off the decisive rally by absorbing a 96 mph pitch to get on base, and the Sox kept stacking from there. Montgomery’s double put Chicago ahead for good, and Grichuk - starting against a right-hander in place of the banged-up Andrew Benintendi - followed by reversing two calls on Rico Garcia sliders that were ruled balls. The zone from Bruce Dreckman was inconsistent all night, and Grichuk later drove an outside breaker up the middle for an RBI single.
Chicago’s ninth inning turned the game fully out of reach. Tristan Peters opened the frame with a single off Yennier Cano, and then Gunnar Henderson missed on his pick of a strange Chase Meidroth chopper/double-play ball, leaving runners at second and third.
Jacob Gonzalez then came through again, lining a run-scoring single past a drawn-in infield for the second time in three days, this time bringing home two runs. Antonacci followed with a double to left-center, and when Vargas grounded low, the Orioles brought in lefty Josh Walker.
Walker got Montgomery to strike out, but then Teel poked an 0-2 slider toward third, and Blaze Alexander missed on the short hop for a two-run error that emptied the stands for the bottom half of the inning.
Teel had already left his mark in the third, when an infield chopper that Orioles starter Shane Baz couldn’t handle was ruled an RBI single and briefly gave the Sox a 2-1 lead. Gonzalez was the only White Sox hitter with multiple hits, and he also drilled a first-pitch Baz fastball for an RBI double to right-center in that same inning after Meidroth worked a leadoff walk. After what the Sox did to Baz in Tampa last July, that was the only damage they managed against him over seven innings, though they made up for it later.
Sean Burke gave Chicago a chance to stay in it despite some early trouble. His biggest issue came in the third, when he lost a pair of seven-pitch battles for walks around a Jackson Holliday single to load the bases with no outs. Taylor Ward lined out to Vargas at third, Adley Rutschman lifted a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2, and Burke finally ended the inning by getting Pete Alonso to chase a slider down and away.
Burke’s night started with trouble, too. Gunnar Henderson lined a leadoff double down the left-field line, moved up on a fly out, and scored on the first of Rutschman’s two sacrifice flies.
Still, Burke settled in and finished with eight strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings, showing 96 mph and enough life to work through the damage. The hard contact he did allow was mostly swallowed up by the defense, including Tristan Peters crashing into the wall to take away a Dylan Beavers drive in the fourth, and Alonso’s sixth-inning fly ball that would have been out in four of 30 MLB parks, but not at renovated Camden Yards.
The Sox didn’t need to overwork the bullpen, but Chris Murphy had to get the last two outs of the sixth in a game that stayed close until the late surge. Grant Taylor ended up with the win after another two innings of work, and Brandon Eisert struck out the side to close it out.
Teel also had a strong night at the plate and with the challenge system, going 4-for-4 and reversing the call on an Eisert slider at the knees to end the game. The only Sox miss on a challenge came when Burke made the call himself on a fastball that missed the corner by a hair.
Montgomery’s slide into home on Grichuk’s RBI single could have been reviewed, but Rutschman’s glove let the ball leak out on impact. Vargas, meanwhile, has now tried to score from second on Teel’s infield single to end the third and has made one each of the last three games, according to the way Baseball Reference counts outs on the bases.
Peters stayed in after getting his hat knocked off while chasing Beavers’ drive to center, then singled and scored in the ninth, which suggested he was fine. The White Sox had already had one outfielder on the concussion IL after a wall collision, but Peters finished the night.
The win snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Orioles.
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