Orioles overcome early defensive miscues in 5-4 win (updated)

CHICAGO - A defense that has brought relief to Orioles manager Brandon Hyde during stretches where home runs allowed and injuries tested his patience suffered a breakdown in Game 1 of today's doubleheader.

Careful where you lean.

Three of the four runs surrendered by David Hess through three innings were unearned. The first four ground balls that he induced didn't turn into outs, and not because they sneaked through the infield.

An ugly loss was teed up, but the Orioles swung their way out of it.

The defense tightened and the Orioles scored three runs in the fourth inning, tied the game in the seventh on Dwight Smith Jr.'s RBI double and took the lead in the eighth on Jonathan Villar's sacrifice fly after Richie Martin's leadoff triple to defeat the White Sox 5-4 in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Orioles snapped their third four-game losing streak and improved to 11-20 heading into Game 2, which begins in 30 minutes and concludes the latest road trip.

Smith failed twice to lay down a bunt before delivering his game-tying double off left-hander Jace Fry, but the Orioles couldn't push across the go-ahead run. Joey Rickard received an intentional walk with one out to load the bases, but Pedro Severino struck out and Stevie Wilkerson grounded out.

Martin tripled to right field off Kelvin Herrera for his fourth extra-base hit in 78 plate appearances and came home on Villar's fly ball to center field. Branden Kline earned his first major league win with two scoreless innings and Mychal Givens recorded the four-out save.

Kline struck out James McCann with a runner on second base for the second out in the eighth inning and Givens handled the rest.

Hess allowed the one earned run and four total in 4 1/3 innings, his exit prompted by the 96 pitches needed to navigate. Shawn Armstrong replaced Hess after José Abreu's strikeout to open the fifth and tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings, with Kline stranding two inherited runners.

Armstrong is the 38th player used by the Orioles and outfielder Anthony Santander will be the 39th in Game 2.

Left-hander Carlos Rodón didn't make it out of the fourth inning, when the Orioles scored three runs to reduce the lead to 4-3. Smith stole third base and came home on McCann's throwing error, Wilkerson's comebacker allowed Hanser Alberto to score and Martin produced an RBI double in a 10-pitch at-bat.

The starters combined to throw 185 pitches and didn't complete the fifth.

The Orioles loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth inning, Fry replaced Carson Fulmer and Villar took and disputed a called third strike.

They were 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners through the seventh inning, but Villar made certain that Martin wouldn't stay at third base in the eighth.

Two more runners were left in scoring position in the ninth, with Wilkerson and Martin striking out, and the Orioles finished 3-for-17.

Hess threw 30 pitches in the third inning, running his count to 71, and he fell behind 4-0. Leury García reached on Hess' throwing error, Yoán Moncada walked and Abreu singled for his second RBI of the day. Moncada scored on an error by first baseman Renato Núñez, who deflected a ground ball and then dropped Villar's hurried throw.

Nicky Delmonico had an RBI single after failing to lay down a bunt and causing Abreu to be tagged out heading back to third base.

García also reached on an error leading off the bottom of the first, this one charged to Alberto on a high throw across the diamond, and he scored on Abreu's double. The White Sox found a formula that worked.

Hess also didn't get a return on Yolmer Sánchez's ground ball in the second inning, which became an infield hit after Villar made a backhanded stop, hesitated and threw late to first.

The Orioles ranked among the leaders in the American League in fielding percentage, but there's been a steady decline and they were 10th at .983 heading into Game 1. Much of it a product of Hyde having to move players to different positions.

The bats would rescue the gloves after producing only seven runs in the last four games.

Hyde on defense: "We weren't playing well early and a bad couple innings defensively. Proud of our guys the way we hung in there down four and took good ABs the rest of the game, so nice win for us."

Hyde on bullpen: "Armstrong, Branden Kline pitched multiple great innings and then Mike at the end there, good to see him get the save. Really happy with how all those guys threw."

Hyde on overcoming mistakes: "We escaped there. A lot of times when you leave that many runners on base and you don't score runners from third ... you don't drive those runs in, it's a recipe for disaster at times. We just had a couple innings defensively also early that we have not had, so that was disappointing, but I was happy with the way we came back and played well the rest of the game."

Hyde on Villar putting ball in play: "Big time, big time. And how about the way Richie Martin swung the bat with a triple off the right-hander in the right field corner? Big double in left-center off a left-hander. He was exciting today and that was fun to watch."

Hyde on Mancini: "I think his finger's still a little sore and he's not all the way there. But he swung the bat aggressively, looked a little rusty. When you have a finger, you're thinking about it also. So he's not in there for the second game and he'll get a day off tomorrow."

Martin on triple: "I didn't know it was, but I'm always hard out of the box. I took a peek at Flo (Jose Flore) and I saw he was waving so I just kept going."

Martin on comeback: "I think it says a lot about our character. I think we were down, what, four runs in the third? But we never gave up. It's just a credit to all the guys on the team. We're never going to give up no matter what the score is or how bad things may get. We're just going to keep pushing."

Martin on contributing with bat: "Yeah, it's always nice to contribute offensively. I think we've been working really hard - me, Don (Long) and Howie (Clark) - so that's nice to see it paying off."

Martin on whether more comfortable: "Yeah, it's a day by day thing. You've got to take it one day at a time. It's a process. But Howie and Don have been doing a really good job of showing me their philosophies and what they believe in and trying to teach me."

Hess on start: "Really going out, grinding through the game. The pitch count was up there and on a cold day they said they really didn't want to push it too much. The biggest thing is we got a win and at the end of the day that's what matters."

Hess on defense: "That's baseball. You're going to have days where things are going great and days where you've got to pick up your guys a little bit. To limit that to four runs, I think is a goal. We bounced back really well and it was a good team win for us."

Hess on Kline: "You really can't put it into words. I've known Kline for a long time. To see, the excitement around the team for him, it's special. I can only imagine how he feels, just the journey that he's had. It's a real testament to perseverance and really just staying poised. It's special for him and special to experience that with him."