Orioles 4, White Sox 0: Road trip ends in sweep

The White Sox were slow to get to the post during the final game of a 10-day, three-city road trip. By the time the pitching and defense tightened up, the Orioles held a 4-0 lead. By the time the offense showed up ... OK, the offense never showed up, even when Baltimore starter Chris Tillman wanted to give them a boost.

The Orioles, on the other hand, singled Jose Quintana to death. The first two runs originated as walks and high fastballs that weren’t high enough, Quintana resumed not being particularly sharp in the opening frame. A confined strike zone didn’t help.

The second two were the result of bloop singles on better fastballs. He shook off the early onslaught well enough to go five, although he gave up nine hits (eight singles) and three walks over that time.

The solace is that he received his traditional amount of support, anyway. Considering the Charlotte Knights battered Tillman for four homers during his rehab start, a shutout is rather sad, and it was an indictment of a poor approach rooted in overzealousness.

The Sox smelled blood when Tillman opened the game by walking the first two batters. Jose Abreu got jammed into a popout on what should’ve been ball four, and after a fielder’s choice loaded the bases, Todd Frazier lined softly to short on a first-pitch pitcher’s-pitch slider, and Cody Asche bounced out after swinging at two curves.

The Sox never had a scoring opportunity that great again. They only had two baserunners reach in the fourth and ninth innings, and the fourth ended with another fizzling plate appearance. With runners on the corners and two outs, Melky Cabrera rolled over on a 2-0 changeup and grounded to second.

The Sox were held to all singles themselves. Frazier found a way to beat the shift by muscling a couple base hits to right, and Yolmer Sanchez had a three-hit afternoon, but the Sox had a helluva time bunching them together with anything else.

Bullet points:

*Rick Renteria was ejected for the first time as a White Sox manager, getting the thumb from the dugout after arguing a bad 2-1 strike call to Avisail Garcia.

*Michael Ynoa and David Robertson pitched three scoreless innings of relief to bring this game to a faster end than it started.

*The White Sox went 4-6 on the road trip. They haven’t won a season series against the Orioles since 2008, and are 6-15 at Camden Yards since 2012.

Record: 15-15 | Box score | Highlights