The Orioles had plenty of scoring opportunities, but they couldn’t take advantage of the situation and it resulted in a 5-1 loss to the White Sox on Thursday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Baltimore lost its 10th consecutive game and fell to 17-33, the worst record in the American League.

The game was tied at 1 when Chicago took the lead in the sixth inning. Billy Hamilton singled on an 0-2 fastball to center off reliever Tanner Scott, scoring Andrew Vaughn with the go-ahead run. The White Sox then went to work on right-hander César Valdez in the seventh, scoring three tack-on runs. Yermín Mercedes highlighted the scoring with a two-run single.

It was a game where the Orioles had a chance to score their share of runs against White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease. In fact, Baltimore went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position against the starter. The O's biggest chance to score happened in the top of the sixth.

With Anthony Santanderon first, Maikel Franco singled on a line drive to the right fielder, keeping the lead runner at second. FreddyGalvis, who homered in the fourth off Cease, thenstruck out, and DJ Stewart flied out to Hamilton in center. The runners were left stranded whenStevie Wilkerson struck out to end the threat.

“I emptied the tank there. One close game, high pitch count, you know your time is limited, so here’s everything I’ve got," said Cease, who threw 111 pitches.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was clearly not happy after the game.

“We didn’t do much offensively,” Hyde said. “Dylan Cease has a great arm. We knew that. He pitched extremely well. He punched out 10 and they have a really good bullpen. It’s tough to win when you score one run and get five hits.”

As a team, the O’s are hitting .233 with a .300 on base percentage.

“I don’t have the special sauce to fix it,” Hyde said. “But we have to take better at-bats. We have to swing the bat a little bit. I’m happy with the top half of our lineup. Cedric Mullins continues to play well, Santander swung the bat well again tonight. Freddy Galvis with a big homer, but not much production after that. Tip your hat to Dylan Cease. He pitched well.”

The Orioles squandered a great pitching performance from left-hander Bruce Zimmermann, who arguably had his best outing of the season. He allowed one run in five innings and struck out six batters, which tied a season high. Zimmermann’s only blemish was allowing a home run to Mercedes.

“[Zimmermann] threw the ball really well. I’m really happy with his start,” Hyde said. “He kept us in the game.”

Zimmermann said he was able to mix his pitches and attack the zone throughout the series opener.

“I felt I had pretty good command of all four of my pitches tonight,” Zimmermann said. “When that happens, usually good things happen. … I was staying on the attack, just going one pitch at a time.”