The White Sox were stuck in a 2-2 game through seven innings Monday night, then the offense finally cracked Baltimore open in a hurry.
Sam Antonacci got the eighth started by taking a pitch from Orioles reliever Grant Wolfram, and that hit-by-pitch set the tone for what came next. Miguel Vargas followed with a flyout, then Colson Montgomery unloaded on a 2-2 pitch to deep center, bringing Antonacci home and putting Chicago in front 3-2. Randal Grichuk then showed the kind of veteran plate discipline that can flip an inning, working around two called strikes before lining a single up the middle to score Montgomery.
From there, the Sox kept piling on in the ninth. They opened the frame with four straight hits, and Jacob Gonzalez delivered another big swing with a single through the right side that drove in two more runs. Kyle Teel added a soft squibber past third baseman Blaze Alexander to bring home two additional runs, and by the time the inning ended, Chicago had turned a tight game into an 8-2 rout.
The best part for the Sox was that the bats never had to carry everything. All nine starters recorded a hit, and the pitching staff did its part by holding Baltimore to two runs on a night when road run prevention has usually been a problem. Chicago entered the game with a 5.39 road ERA, 29th in the league, but the group stayed on top of the Orioles long enough for the late surge to matter.
Sean Burke set the tone on the mound. The right-hander allowed two runs over 5.1 innings, struck out eight, and showed plenty of life on his fastball, which reached 98.9 MPH.
He had to work through some control trouble and escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the third with just one run allowed, but the stuff was there all night. He generated 13 swings-and-misses and posted his third strong start in a row.
The bullpen finished the job. Chris Murphy handled the sixth after Burke exited, Grant Taylor threw two perfect innings, and Brandon Eisert closed it out by striking out the side in a perfect ninth.
Chicago had actually given itself an early lead before Baltimore pulled even. Adley Rutschman put the Orioles on the board with a sacrifice fly in the first, scoring Gunnar Henderson.
The Sox answered in the third when Jacob Gonzalez doubled to center to bring home Chase Meidroth, then Kyle Teel singled to shortstop to score Gonzalez. Baltimore tied it again in the bottom half on another Rutschman sac fly, this one scoring Blaze Alexander.
Gonzalez was the lone Sox hitter with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-4 with a double, two runs and three RBIs. His third-inning double tied the game, and his ninth-inning single helped break it open. After snapping his 0-for-28 stretch against Cleveland on Thursday, Gonzalez is now 8-for-17.
Meidroth also kept the pressure on by getting on base. He went 1-for-2 with a double, two runs and two walks, and both of Gonzalez’s RBI hits came with Meidroth having reached first. It was the first time Meidroth drew more than one walk in a game since May 15 against the Cubs.
The Sox now turn to Tuesday night with a chance to take their first road series since May 1-3 in San Diego.
In Other News...
White Sox May Be Seeing Another Chris Getz Draft Find Emerge
The White Sox have spent much of the summer seeing young players push their way into the conversation, from Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas to Braden Montgomery and Sam Antonacci, and that wave of development has only added to the optimism around a club sitting atop the AL Central. With the first pick in the 2026 MLB Draft still ahead of them, the organization is also continuing to mine value from the lower levels, where another recent draftee has started to turn heads with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers.
Matthew Boughton, taken in the 11th round last year after being pulled away from his Texas A&M commitment, has been making a stronger case by the week that he is more than a lottery ticket. He earned Carolina League Player of the Week honors two weeks ago and has followed that up with a June surge that has him looking increasingly like one of the more intriguing young players in the system, the kind of late-round find every front office hopes to uncover. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Top Prospect Just Delivered The Breakout Fans Wanted
Caleb Bonemer keeps making the White Sox look smarter for betting on his bat, and his latest showing at Double-A Birmingham was the kind of all-around night that turns heads in a hurry. In a 10-5 win over Knoxville, the 20-year-old prospect came through with his first homer at the level and finished 4-for-5, his first four-hit game of the season and only the second of his career.
Bonemers season line already had him near the top of the organization in several offensive categories, and the power production has become impossible to ignore. The bigger question now is how quickly that bat keeps forcing its way into the conversation, because nights like this tend to change the temperature around a prospect fast. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Face Obvious Move As Catching Struggles Persist
Kyle Teels return from the injured list gave the White Sox a small boost, but the catching picture still looks unsettled. Chicago has been searching for more production behind the plate, and Drew Romos bat has not given the lineup much help, with his .137 average underscoring how little offensive impact the position has provided.
Korey Lee, meanwhile, has been in Triple-A and has shown better offensive numbers, which naturally keeps his name in the conversation as a possible upgrade in a backup role. For a White Sox club trying to piece together more reliable offense wherever it can find it, the next move at catcher is starting to look less like a question and more like an obvious decision waiting to be made. [Read more 🡒]