BALTIMORE -- White Sox starter Michael Kopech fought his control and ultimately was unable to find the strike zone consistently in his team’s 9-0 loss to the first-place Orioles on Monday night at Camden Yards.

The right-hander was unable to complete five innings for the fourth straight start as he battled locating his slider at the bottom of the zone, allowing four runs on seven hits and four walks, along with a wild pitch that scored a run. Kopech threw 95 pitches to record 12 outs, including 56 for strikes.

The White Sox offense, which was shut out for the ninth time this season, mustered only two hits against O’s starter Grayson Rodriguez and three relievers.

"I left some balls over the plate,” Kopech said. “I think some of those guys are more chase guys that I could have expanded a little bit with. Ultimately, I'm not terribly upset with how I pitched. Pretty upset with the results.

“We are looking to win games, and it's unfortunate when I can't get to the fifth and can't take a little bit of the load off of the bullpen, and can't put us in a better position to win."

Kopech (5-12) has walked at least four batters in eight of his past nine starts. He ranks second in the Majors with 84 walks this season, one behind Padres starter Blake Snell’s 85.

Kopech’s walk percentage is at 15.1% (84 walks, 558 batters faced). Since the All-Star break, it’s been even worse, with 35 walks in 38 innings -- the most in the Major Leagues during that span.

"Results-wise, it was pretty tough,” Kopech said. “I have been trying to work on some things. Definitely my mentality going out to the mound. I felt like I brought a pretty good mentality with me today.

“I felt like I was aggressive. I felt like I threw stuff-wise pretty well. [I] had some walks that ended up being long at-bats that hurt me pretty bad."

In the second inning, Kopech got out of hot water after Ryan O’Hearn and Cedric Mullins reached on an infield single and a double. Kopech beared down to retire Ramon Urias, Adam Frazier and Ryan McKenna on a grounder to second and a pair of strikeouts.

"It's always nice being able to work out of a jam,” Kopech said. “But I've done a pretty poor job of minimizing jams I put myself into this year. I put myself in a bit of jam there and had to work out of it, and that was nice.

“But then two more innings kind of got the best of me and threw too many pitches to get deep in the game.”

Then the Orioles’ offense got going, scoring four runs on five hits in the third and fourth frames, highlighted by O’Hearn’s two-run single.

Kopech’s slider did not reach catcher Korey Lee’s glove at critical moments. Kopech threw a pair of pitches to Ryan Mountcastle and one to O’Hearn that bounced in the dirt before reaching home plate.

Offensively, the White Sox could not build anything of substance against Rodriguez.

After the Baltimore right-hander retired the first 11 batters he faced, Luis Robert Jr. drilled a double that bounced up against the extended left-center-field wall for the White Sox first hit in the fourth inning.

But Rodriguez’s 100 mph fastball continued to produce several swings and misses, as he retired 16 of the first 18 White Sox batters over six scoreless innings to go with one walk and six strikeouts.

Rodriguez had allowed four runs in five innings against the White Sox on April 16.

"Different guy than the first time we saw him,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “This kid's done a good job of making adjustments. He pounded the strike zone. The changeup was moving more like a split type, that's how it was being described to us by the hitters.

“Ball gets on you. They've done a nice job with his development. He looks like one of those guys that could end up in the top of the rotation at some point."

Chicago cleanup hitter Eloy Jiménez grounded out twice early and hit into a 5-4-3 double play in the seventh. Robert Jr. had both White Sox hits.

"On the offensive side, we really didn't do much,” Grifol said. “Robert with a couple of hits. We had some hard balls. [Yoán] Moncada hit a couple of hard balls, but overall, we didn't do anything.”