The Chicago White Sox had a four-run lead and Dylan Cease on the mound.
That’s often a successful mixture.
But it wasn’t sufficient to safe their first sequence victory of the season Sunday because the Sox fell to the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 in entrance of 13,794 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“That was a tough one,” supervisor Pedro Grifol mentioned.
Cedric Mullins drove within the go-ahead run with a single to heart within the eighth inning towards reliever Aaron Bummer. The Orioles added two extra within the eighth and one other within the ninth on the best way to taking two of three within the sequence.
With the disappointing defeat, the Sox fell to 0-4-1 in sequence this season.
“We definitely haven’t played up to our abilities,” Cease mentioned. “There’s still a lot of season left. We’ve just got to clean it up a little bit.”
The Sox began robust after a 2-hour, 22-minute climate delay with 4 runs within the first due to a three-run homer by Gavin Sheets and a solo blast by Jake Burger.
The bats went silent after that towards Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez.
“He’s a great pitcher,” Burger mentioned. “He’s got really good stuff. He started mixing a lot better. Some days you don’t have it the first inning and you come back and figure it out.”
Rodriguez, 23, allowed 4 runs on six hits with eight strikeouts and two walks in 5 innings. All 4 runs and three of the six hits got here within the first.
He settled in after that, giving up three singles the remainder of his outing.
“He ended up going to his off-speed stuff and he was throwing it for strikes,” Grifol mentioned. “He was mixing it up. He made some adjustments. But we’ve got to continue to tack on if we want to put those types of games away.”
The Sox had 4 hits after the primary and completed with 13 strikeouts, 4 by cleanup hitter Eloy Jiménez.
“I don’t know if we expanded the strike zone or not,” Grifol mentioned, “but we had a good game plan going in and got some pitches up in the zone in the first inning, did some damage, and after that we did not make adjustments. (Rodriguez) changed his approach a little bit. But from my end, he made adjustments and we didn’t.”
The Orioles had already scored as soon as within the fourth when a two-out fielding error by Burger at third base prolonged the inning. Mullins adopted with a two-run triple to chop the Sox result in 4-3.
“Back-side ground ball, I lost it for a second right off the bat,” Burger mentioned. “Got a late learn on it and sort of skipped up on me. It by no means feels good to try this. For me, it feels prefer it’s all the time with Cease on the mound.
“It’s kind of disappointing to me that I made that play. But I think last year probably would have made another mistake in the game. I felt like I bounced back pretty well.”
The Orioles tied the sport within the sixth on a wild pitch. Cease allowed two earned runs on six hits with 5 strikeouts and 5 walks in six innings.
“I felt pretty good; unfortunately I didn’t ever really get into a rhythm,” Cease mentioned. “It was one of those starts where it was just a grind the entire start.”
Cease threw 113 pitches. Grifol mentioned of staying with Cease within the sixth: “Dylan is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He had enough pitches to go into that sixth and finish the sixth. I’d do it again tomorrow. Everybody knows the bullpen has been taxed a little bit. Either way, Dylan is one of the best pitchers in the game.”
Mullins broke the tie along with his RBI single within the eighth. He had three hits and 4 RBIs whereas the Sox misplaced for the seventh time in 10 video games.
“We’ve got to minimize baserunners,” Grifol mentioned. “They had quite a lot of site visitors the final three video games, however we additionally had leads in three video games. So I’m not going to take a seat right here and say we’re shut. That’s not what that is about. We’ve received to make changes and decrease baserunners and walks (26 within the sequence), hit with runners in scoring place — the entire above to assist us win video games.
“But it’s not like it’s a lack of effort. These guys are working. It’s one of those runs. We’re going to put it together at some point on both ends of the ball.”
Before the sport, the Sox positioned infielder Hanser Alberto on the 10-day injured listing, retroactive to Saturday, with a strained left quadriceps. They additionally chosen the contract of outfielder Adam Haseley from Triple-A Charlotte and designated infielder/outfielder Nick Solak for project.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com