O's lose 1-0 in Chicago, shut out for the second night in a row

Chicago White Sox left-hander John Danks had a terrible June. But tonight, he got his July off to a good start against an Orioles team that is suddenly struggling on offense.

Danks pitched seven scoreless innings as the Chicago White Sox beat the Orioles 1-0 at U.S. Cellular Field in the opener of a three-game series.

The Orioles have been shut out in back-to-back games, losing both even though their pitchers allowed just three runs. The Orioles have not scored in their last 19 innings. They have just eight hits the past two games.

Danks went 0-4 with a 6.85 ERA in four June starts, allowing a .344 batting average, but tonight he held the Orioles to five singles as he improved to 4-8 with a 4.96 ERA. Jake Petricka pitched the eighth, and David Robertson struck out the side in the ninth to record his 17th save.

Ubaldo Jimenez took the tough-luck loss. He gave up a leadoff homer in the third to Jose Abreu, who hit an 0-2 fastball out to right field. It was his 14th homer of the season and the 50th of his career.

The O's missed out on some big chances in the middle innings. After singles by Chris Davis and J.J. Hardy started the fifth, Steve Pearce bounced into a double play. In the seventh, the Orioles had runners on second and third, but Danks struck out Caleb Joseph and got Ryan Flaherty to fly out as the O's left two in scoring position.

For the game, the Orioles went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. Over the last three games, they have scored four runs and are 0-for-14 with RISP. They began tonight leading the majors with a .311 team average with RISP.

In losing for the fourth time in five games, the Orioles fall to 42-38. They are 2-2 against the Sox and 16-22 on the road. Chicago is 35-42 and has won seven of its last 11 games.

In the second game of the series Saturday at 2:10 p.m., Chris Tillman (6-7, 5.67 ERA) faces right-hander Jeff Samardzija (5-4, 4.65).