White Sox 4, Orioles 2: Winless 10-game road trip avoided

For the briefest of moments, it looked like Addison Reed might walk off the field as the losing pitcher for the second straight game. Entering with a 4-1 lead, he loaded the bases with a walk, single and a walk, which brought Ryan Flaherty to the plate.

Reed started Flaherty with a fastball, and Flaherty was ready for it. Maybe a little too ready for his purposes, since he turned, burned and sent a high drive juuuuuust foul down the right field line.

Flaherty sat on the fastball because Reed didn't have a slider, but the White Sox closer forged ahead with one pitch. He eventually grounded into a 3-6 fielder's choice at second, which narrowed the gap to 4-2 but prevented the tying run from reaching second for the time being.

Pinch-runner Chris Dickerson wanted that 90 feet, but the timing didn't work out for him. On an 0-2 pitch, Dickerson took off while Brian Roberts hit a sky-high pop-up that drifted behind first base. It normally would have given a baserunner plenty of time to locate the ball and head back to first, but Dickerson had gone into second headfirst, and had no idea of his surroundings. Leury Garcia caught the ball and casually flipped it to Jeff Keppinger for the game-ending double play.

And just like that, the White Sox avoided re-setting their own record for the longest winless road trip, finishing the East Coast jaunt 1-9.

Andre Rienzo picked up the win, and he earned it. He gave up just one run over 6⅔ innings, allowing just four hits and (more importantly) two walks, both in the first inning. He seemed to find his sea legs after those back-to-back walks by striking out Adam Jones with a beautiful curveball, and then getting Nate McLouth to fly out to left to end the inning.

Baltimore's lineup tends to be aggressive, and it worked in Rienzo's favor. For instance, in the fifth inning, Rienzo fell behind 2-0 (lazy flyout), 3-1 (popout to second) and 1-0 (flyout to right) to three batters and only threw 12 pitches.

The one run came on a solo shot by Jones in the fourth inning, which cut the White Sox's lead to 2-1. It wasn't a bad pitch -- a knee-high, outer-half cutter -- but Jones got down, barreled it up and sent it just over the wall in right-center. Rienzo struck him out in their other two battles, including once with the tying run on second in the sixth inning, so Rienzo got the last laugh.

He also got enough offensive support. Dayan Viciedo continued his hot hitting with a smoked RBI double to left-center in the first. They doubled their lead in less inspiring fashion in the fourth by scoring one run on four singles -- including two infield singles off Flaherty at second.

They needed less to score more the next inning. Adam Dunn came to the plate after an Alexei Ramirez single having struck out twice against Bud Norris, and struggling to pull the trigger on either his fastball or his slider. For some reason, Norris threw Dunn a changeup, and Dunn found that more to his liking. He crushed the ball onto Eutaw Street to give the Sox a 4-1 lead, and that would be enough to win for once.

Bullet points:

*Conor Gillaspie made a beautiful diving stop, followed by a beautiful diving tag, to rob Manny Machado of an RBI single in the third inning. He made a similarly impressive leaping grab on a high Machado chopper, but he threw the ball away for an error.

*That run did not score, because Nate Jones inherited Machado on second and Adam Jones (not related) on first with one out, and got Henry Urrutia to ground into a double play on the first pitch.

Record: 57-85 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights