Sox searching for clutch hits, command

BALTIMORE -- The White Sox were hoping their stopper, Dylan Cease, could get them back on the winning side as they opened a critical series between a pair of teams fighting for a postseason invitation at Oriole Park on Tuesday night.

But a quick start for the offense and the right-hander’s struggles with fastball command ended with Chicago dropping the series opener to Baltimore, 5-3.

Suddenly, the White Sox have lost five of their last six games and are 62-61. They had scoring chances in almost every inning, pounding out 11 hits, but they left 13 men on base.

The quick start Chicago craved came by way of a booming two-run homer from Eloy Jiménez in the game’s third at-bat. But the White Sox ended up chasing the Orioles the rest of the night. They are now 1-4 against Baltimore this season after dominating them 7-0 in their 2021 matchups.

Ryan Mountcastle’s three-run shot over the center-field wall traveled 420 feet to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the first. The homer came off a Cease slider on a 3-1 count.

Orioles starter Austin Voth allowed just two runs on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings. In the last six games, the White Sox have left 54 runners on base.

"To be fair, you can't say the team quit,” said manager Tony La Russa. “We kept producing situations, but we got to finish it up. Everybody is frustrated when you don't put the guys on base like that, but you can't get them home. Lots of hits, a lot of opportunities.”

Against Voth, the White Sox were able to connect on a base hit to lead off an inning four times, but they brought the runner home just once, thanks to the Jiménez blast.

"They start pressing,” La Russa said. “[They] try to force it. You can't force it in this game. Just get a good pitch to hit, put a good swing to it. Human nature is you want to force it, and all of sudden stuff starts to fall in and everybody starts to relax a little bit. True for hitters."

Cease lost his second decision this month to fall to 12-6. He was pulled after 5 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on just three hits, with four strikeouts and three walks.

"It wasn't good,” the right-hander said. “Poor command. Didn't get ahead of guys and didn't pitch well. Most of the game I wasn't very consistent.”

Can this loss be attributed to his extra rest between starts?

“I would just say I didn't have it,” Cease said. “Every once in a while a game like that is going to happen. Not exactly sure why, but all I can do is get back on it.”

"Started off slow a little bit. Mainly just fastball command, everything else was good,” catcher Seby Zavala said of Cease. “Couple sliders left in the middle, but we just got to get back to the good fastball command."

The White Sox final chance came in the eighth in a huge matchup between three of their top hitters and Orioles closer Félix Bautista. With two men on and a two-run deficit, Luis Robert struck out on three pitches.

Jiménez was hit by a 102 mph fastball above his left elbow and had to leave the game. He had a large knot above the elbow postgame in the clubhouse. X-rays were negative and Jiménez is day to day.

"He got popped on the elbow and [there was] swelling, so fingers crossed," La Russa said.

With the bases loaded, Bautista struck out José Abreu with another 101 mph fastball to end the threat.

The result marks the 26th time Chicago has lost the first game of a series. They are 14-26 in openers.

Cease has allowed seven runs in his last two outings after posting an incredible run of 14 consecutive starts with one earned run or fewer. The three runs allowed in the first inning were the most the right-hander has allowed in an opening frame since surrendering four runs at Boston May 24 in a 16-3 loss, a span of 15 starts.

Andrew Vaughn’s pinch-hit single to center field scored Robert from third to cut the lead to 4-3 in the seventh. But Orioles shortstop Jorge Mateo answered quickly with a two-out run-scoring single to left field in the bottom of the inning to push Baltimore’s lead back up to 5-3.

Robert finished 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles. He owns a 13-game hitting streak and is batting .418 with two homers, seven doubles and 10 RBIs during that span.

"Every day we go out there trying to win games,” Robert said via team interpreter Billy Russo. “That's our mindset, but it's not something you can just say, 'OK, we want to win,’ and the wins are going to be there. No. You have to go out there and do your job and perform. It's not that easy to just say it. You have to do it on the field. You have another team trying to win games. It's a battle."