O's game blog: Looking for another victory in Chicago

After posting wins by 4-0 and 4-1 the last two nights, the Orioles look for another victory in Chicago against the White Sox this afternoon. The game is expected to start late due to rain, and no official start time has been announced as of this writing.

A win would give the Orioles (33-39) both a series victory and a four-game winning streak for the first time this season. At 33-39 they are playing .458 ball, which projects to a final record of 74-88 over 162 games.

With Friday’s win the O’s have won three in a row, four of five, six of eight and nine of their past 13 games. Over the last 18 games, they are 11-7 and are 19-15 since May 19, when they were 10 games under the .500 mark.

Since going 7-14 in April, the Orioles are 14-16 in May and now 12-9 in June for a combined 26-25 record since May 1. With five games left this month, the Orioles need to go 2-3 or better to post their first winning month since August 2017.

The Orioles are 14-11 in their last 25 games. The last time the team won 14 in a 25-game stretch in a single season was from Aug. 12 to Sept. 8, 2017. When the Orioles last had a winning month, they finished 17-12 in August 2017. Their last month with a .500 record was July 2019 at 12-12.

Orioles pitching has been on quite the roll, throwing shutouts on Wednesday versus the Nationals and Thursday in the Chicago series opener, then allowing just one run on one hit last night when White Sox batters went 1-for-28 and O’s pitchers retired the last 19 batters in a row to end the game.

So O’s pitching:

* Has allowed just one run over the past three games, five runs in five games and 14 runs over the last eight games.

* Has allowed two runs or fewer in six of the last eight games and posted a team ERA of 1.83 in that span.

* Has allowed one run the last 24 innings.

* Has seen its starting rotation allow one run in 13 2/3 innings the last three games, and just three runs in 22 2/3 over the last five.

* Has seen its bullpen allow five earned runs in 38 innings for an ERA of 1.18 the last 10 games, and allow one earned run or none in each of the 10 games. The bullpen has thrown 9 1/3 scoreless innings on just two hits in this series.

Lowest team ERA in MLB since June 19

1.19 – Orioles
1.61 – Washington
2.40 – Seattle
2.67 – Los Angeles Dodgers
2.79 - Houston

The O’s used right-hander Austin Voth and four relievers last night, and they combined to throw Baltimore's first one-hitter since Asher Wojciechowski, Paul Fry and Mychal Givens did so on July 21, 2019 against Boston. This is now the club’s first time limiting opponents to one run or none over a three-game span since April 19-21, 2017.

O’s closer Jorge López has not allowed an earned run in 14 straight outings covering 17 innings since May 22 versus Tampa Bay. He owns a 36 1/3-inning homerless streak since Sept. 6, 2021, and is one of two pitchers in the major leagues to have thrown at least 35 innings and not allow a homer this season, the other being San Diego's Nabil Crismatt. López owns a 0.75 ERA (3 ER/36.0 IP) in 31 games this season, the lowest ERA in the big leagues by a pitcher with at least 35 innings pitched. López's 0.75 ERA is the lowest by an O's pitcher through his first 31 games of a season since the club came to Baltimore in 1954.

Last season, when the White Sox went 93-69 and won the American League Central, the Orioles were 0-7 against Chicago and were outscored 45-16 in the season series. In fact, they had lost eight in a row to this team dating to 2020, a streak that ended with the O’s win on Thursday night.

So the Orioles have started this long road trip 2-0 at Chicago, and it moves onto Seattle and Minnesota after this weekend. The trip is tied for Baltimore's longest of the season with another 10-game, 11-day tour that took place from April 18-28, when the O's went 3-7, going 1-3 against the A's, 2-1 against the Angels, and 0-3 against the Yankees.

In O’s roster moves today, infielder Rylan Bannon and pitcher Marcos Diplán were optioned to Triple-A and the team added pitcher Spenser Watkins and infielder Jonathan Araúz from Triple-A. Watkins (0-1, 6.00 ERA) will start on the mound today and Araúz is starting at second base and batting eighth. Right-hander Lance Lynn (1-0, 5.79 ERA) is on the mound for Chicago.