O’s overcome early hole, defensive miscues

May 2nd, 2019

CHICAGO -- The Orioles came back to score five unanswered runs to defeat the White Sox, 5-4, in Game 1 of Wednesday’s doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The O’s found a way to push across two runs against the Sox bullpen to fight back from an early 4-0 deficit.

“Proud of our guys. The way we hung in there. Down four and took good ABs the rest of the game,” manager Brandon Hyde said.

Designated hitter Dwight Smith Jr. shot an RBI double down the right-field line to score Trey Mancini, who led off the seventh with a walk, to tie the game at 4.

Jonathan Villar put the Orioles ahead in the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly that scored . Martin, who hit a leadoff triple before scoring on Villar’s sacrifice fly, finished the game 2-for-4 with one walk, one RBI and one run.

“I think it says a lot about our character,” Martin said. “I think we were down, what, four runs in the third? We never give up and it’s credit to all the guys on the team.”

Baltimore’s early miscues almost cost it a chance to come back in the game as the team made three costly errors, each of which plated a run. The Orioles also left 13 runners on base.

“We just had a couple of innings defensively that we have not had. But proud of our guys,” Hyde said. “We escaped there. A lot of times when you leave that many runners on base and you don’t score runners from third. ... Get the lead and tack on runs, it’s a recipe for disaster at times."

Lost in the shuffle was the start by . Unlike his last start against the White Sox on April 22, Hess allowed little hard contact and gave the Orioles a chance to stay in the game.

Hess earned a no-decision, allowing just one earned run. He scattered four hits and tossed 4 1/3 innings with four strikeouts and two walks.

“Really going out grinding through the game, the pitch count was up there. On a cold day, just didn’t want to push it too much,” Hess said. “I think the biggest thing is we got the win and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”