CHICAGO -- It wasn’t always pretty, and some of the issues that plagued Baltimore before its trip to Chicago made its way to the South Side -- but the ability to overcome those miscues says something in itself.
The Orioles did enough to outlast the White Sox in a 5-3 victory on Wednesday afternoon at Rate Field, securing the sweep and a 3-3 road trip to get back to .500 after a rough series in Pittsburgh.
The O’s have yet to hit their stride offensively, defensive errors have cost the club runs and the No. 5 starter role is in flux, but Baltimore found a way to right the ship before Thursday’s off-day and return home.
“It’s a long season. It’s a marathon. There’s going to be ups and downs,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “No need to panic after a tough series in Pittsburgh. … We’ll turn the page. It was a great series win, great sweep.”
And here’s how the Orioles can get even better:
High-powered offense waiting to break out
Gunnar Henderson, Taylor Ward, Adley Rutschman, Pete Alonso and Tyler O'Neill have combined for just six homers so far -- which wouldn’t be any cause for alarm if Henderson didn’t have four of them. It’s hard to imagine Ward, Rutschman, Alonso and O’Neill having extended power outages at the same time, but the O’s have only hit more homers (eight) than the Tigers (seven) in the American League. Still, they entered the day tied for 19th in runs scored (45).
The first sign to mix things up happened in Wednesday’s finale, when manager Craig Albernaz switched up the lineup to put Henderson, whose homers in the first two games were the difference, at leadoff and Alonso, who has had a slow start, at cleanup for the first time this season.
Ward, who has nine doubles in his past eight games and had been holding down the leadoff spot, continued to rake and drove in Henderson twice with a pair of doubles in part of a four-hit effort in the finale. The club is still waiting for Alonso and O’Neill to heat up, but once they do, the O’s envision their offense as being one of the most dangerous in the league. For now, they’ll settle with the fourth-most doubles (23) in MLB.
“The potential is going to be there all year, which is awesome,” Ward said.
“… I think some guys are still trying to get going, and there are going to be some days when we put it to some teams, and those are going to be really fun, where everybody is swinging it. I just think that when guys aren’t swinging it, you have other guys in the lineup who can pick you up, pick those guys up, is the biggest thing. I think that’s what’s going to help carry us throughout the year. But the lineup potential is phenomenal.”
Defense not locking it down
It wasn’t the first series the Orioles had been sloppy on defense, and it was no different against the White Sox with four errors in three games.
The most costly came Wednesday, when starter Kyle Bradish was frustrated after a two-out walk to Colson Montgomery in the fifth to load the bases. Bradish didn’t keep his eye on the throw back to the mound from Rutschman, turning his head early and thrusting his glove at the ball, instead of catching it cleanly.
The ball rolled away from him and a lack of urgency to pick it up allowed Chase Meidroth to score from second base. Bradish then hurried his throw to the plate and sailed it to the backstop, allowing both runners to advance.
“Yeah, just frustration came out. Unacceptable,” Bradish said. “That's just childish behavior, and that will not happen again.”
Additionally, second baseman Blaze Alexander sailed a glove toss over Alonso’s head at first base, resulting in a hit, and there were two ground balls hit between first base and the pitcher Wednesday that led to White Sox infield hits without a throw.
“Development is messy, right? And defense hasn’t really been in the forefront here for a long time, and that’s something we’re instilling. Like, defense matters,” Albernaz said after Monday’s win. “It’s going to be messy. We’ve shown flashes of playing great defense, and we’ve also shown flashes of not playing great defense. So for the players, it’s keep on working, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
If the O’s can clean it up, and their big hitters can produce at the level they’re capable of, there’s reason to believe this team can be among the AL’s best. We are just waiting to see it.