White Sox 12, Orioles 1: Big Bats in Baltimore

Camden Yards does not appear to have blown away from the massive storm banging the East Coast today, which is good because that means we get baseball!

The White Sox arrived at Camden Yards like kindergartners on a field trip.

The sides were scoreless until the bottom of the second. Ramon Urias changed that when he hit a short, 370-foot homer to left. It was flew out at 106 mph, but definitely didn’t look like it was going that fast. That was the only damage done in the second, and the O’s were quickly up, 1-0.

The Orioles lead didn’t last long, though. The White Sox tied it up with two outs in the top of the third. Tim Anderson had singled and gotten to second on a fly out by Yoán Moncada, while José Abreu walked. A double to the right-field corner by Brian Goodwin off a wonky knuckle curve by Lopez sent Abreu to third and Anderson home to even things up, 1-1.

Adam Engel hit a missile to the left side that was caught by Kelvin Gutierrez to end the inning.

A bit of controversy came at the bottom of the fourth, when it looked like Anthony Santander hit a two-run home run that was ruled a double by crew chief review. A little more wind and it was gone, though, but instead it bounced off the top of the left-field wall.

White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel got out of the inning without the Orioles adding to their lead, and things were stuck at 1-1.

With no outs and two on at the top of the fifth, Abreu singled through to right field and scored Anderson to bring the score to 2-1, Sox. The end result was Cole Sulser coming in relief of Lopez and squirming out of the inning. Keuchel managed to get out of the inning (and his “third time through the order” hex) without the Orioles scoring, but he was still looking shaky.

Which brings us to the top of the sixth, when things broke wide open for the White Sox. After walking Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets, Sulser was replaced by Dillon Tate. Seby Zavala had a sac bunt to move Vaughn and Sheets ahead while giving the Orioles an unnecessary out. Anderson came up and hit dart to right field, bouncing off the wall for a double. Vaughn and Sheets scored, and the White Sox were up, 4-1. Walking both Moncada and Abreu loaded up the bases with one out for Goodwin. Tate walked Goodwin to bring in Anderson, and it was 5-1. A sac fly from Engel scored Moncada to drive in the sixth run. Leury García striking out ended the half-inning, but the damage was done and the White Sox were up, 6-1.

In the top of the seventh Cesar Valdez came in to pitch and with one out, Sheets nailed a solo home run to right, which was especially exciting for the Baltimore native, with his family there to witness.

After that, Zavala doubled to left, Anderson struck out, and Moncada was walked to bring up Abreu. Abreu responded with a two-run double to drive in Anderson and Moncada, bringing things up to 9-1 in the top of the seventh. Abreu was stranded at second when great contact by Goodwin was snagged and stopped in the infield for the third out.

In the top of the ninth, Engel hit a three-run home run (scoring Jake Burger and Zack Collins, who had come in as pinch-hitters), and the White Sox took the first game in the series, 12-1, vs. the orange birds.

Other highlights included Michael Kopech coming in for relief and completely burning through Orioles batters and Matt Foster closing things out by holding the Orioles to one run.

Get some rest, cause we’re back at it tomorrow at 3:05 p.m.!