White Sox 5, Orioles 3: Sheets shines in his hometown

The Chicago White Sox picked up an important game tonight against the Baltimore Orioles, winning 5-3 and getting to two games better than .500, at 63-61. Lucas Giolito redeemed himself in an important outing that the team really needed.

The team wasted no time getting on the board again in the first inning, this time against Spenser Watkins. Andrew Vaughn, Luis Robert, and José Abreu got on to load the bases. The hometown kid, Gavin Sheets, continued his solid hitting with a single to center, scoring two.

Watkins settled down as the game went on, as he and Giolito rolled through the order until the bottom of the fourth inning. Adley Rutschman started it off with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice fly. Ryan Mountcastle grounded out to drive him in from third, cutting the lead in half, at 2-1.

The game continued to fly by, and it wasn’t until the top of the seventh inning that the South Siders extended their lead. Watkins was replaced by Bryan Baker after going a solid six innings with five hits, two runs, two walks, and five strikeouts.

Baker started off the inning with a walk to Seby Zavala and a one-out walk to Vaughn. Robert singled to load the bases again, and lefty Keegan Akin replaced Baker. A lefty-on-lefty matchup didn’t seem to bother Sheets, who sprinted to beat a throw from shortstop for an RBI, extending the lead to 3-1.

Giolito came back out for the bottom of seventh, and started off the inning with a single to Mountcastle and a one-out walk to Ramón Urías. That would be the end of the night for him, as Giolito went 6 ¹⁄₃ innings with four hits, one run, two walks, and three strikeouts. His ERA now sits at 5.14.

Kendall Graveman replaced Gio and loaded the bases, but fortunately Yoán Moncada made a SportsCenter-Top-10 play to get out of the inning unscathed.

It’s no secret Moncada has been a wizard with the glove over at third all season, and this stop may have saved the game.

Elvis Andrus and Romy González (two names you wouldn’t expect to be in a lineup together this season, I bet) started off the top of the eighth with back-to-back singles, and Andrus would go on to score on a wild pitch to add an insurance run.

Leadoff hitter AJ Pollock drove in González from third to extend the lead to 5-1 on a single to center.

Graveman continued into the eighth inning, where another amazing defensive play was made — this time by Vaughn at first base.

Maybe sliding into first wasn’t the best idea by Cedric Mullins but hey, at least it wasn’t headfirst.

Liam Hendriks finally got the chance to get in the game, and started off smooth-rolling, with a strikeout of Anthony Santander.

He got interrupted by a Mountcastle single, and then Austin Hays homered to cut the lead to 5-3. Luckily, we actually scored with runners in scoring position today, tallying some insurance for this tight ninth.

Hendriks would go on to get the next two outs easily to end the game. The Cleveland Guardians won earlier today, but the Minnesota Twins lost, and we are tied for second place in the division with the Twins, four games behind Cleveland.

Every game from here on out is important. Let’s see if we can grab another win and steal a road series tomorrow night in the finale of this three game set. Lance Lynn will be on the mound, and we have another 6:05 p.m. CT start.