O's game blog: O's try to end the road trip with a four-game sweep at Chicago

After the Orioles had been swept three straight and lost their sweepless streak in St. Louis, they were hoping things would turn for the better in Chicago. They have but the Orioles have had to work hard to get three wins, each by two runs, against a team with a poor record. 

But by posting wins by 8-6, 6-4 and then 5-3 yesterday, the Orioles (32-18) can complete a four-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox (15-38) today at Guaranteed Rate Field.

After scoring just eight runs in the losses at St. Louis, the Orioles have scored 19 runs on 29 hits and hit six homers against the White Sox.

The O's were behind 3-0 going to the top of the eighth Saturday when they hit three homers in a span of five batters. The homer explosion put them in front and they won the game. 

Ryan O'Hearn's two-run shot was his seventh and allowed the O's to avoid the shutout. But the next two home run balls allowed them to avoid a loss. Anthony Santander's two-run shot gave them a 4-3 lead and Jordan Westburg's eighth homer, a solo blast, gave them an insurance run.

The Orioles are now 21-3 when hitting two or more homers and they are 11-2 when hitting three or more.

At 32-18 at the 50-game mark, they are one game behind their record at this point last year of 33-17.

The Orioles recorded their 15th comeback victory of the season. They are 15-8 on the road and now rank second in the major leagues in home runs with 75.

The Orioles went 4-2 versus the White Sox last season and are 12-4 against them since 2022.

Westburg, who has gone 4-for-8 the past two games of the series, recorded his 11th multi-hit game of the season, and his first since May 15 versus Toronto on Saturday afternoon.

O'Hearn is batting .294/.364/.521 with four doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 18 RBIs against right-handed pitchers this season.

Santander produced his sixth career go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later and second this season (also on 4/11 at Boston).

The O's face a tough lefty today in Garrett Crochet (5-4, 3.75 ERA), a pitcher rolling in recent starts. Over his past three games, he has thrown 17 scoreless innings on 10 hits with four walks and 21 strikeouts. And he has a 19-inning scoreless stretch coming into this start.

Over his past five games, he is 4-0 with an ERA of 0.96. In that span, he has allowed 15 hits in 28 innings with a .152 batting average against.

Among Statcast stats, he ranks in the top three percent of MLB pitchers in expected ERA, the top eight percent in fastball velocity (at 96.8 mph) and the top seven percent in strikeout percentage.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish (0-0, 2.41 ERA) makes his fourth start for the Orioles. On the year he's allowed 16 hits in 18 2/3 innings with seven walks to 23 strikeouts and he has a WHIP of 1.232.

MLB ERA leaders since the start of the 2023 season:

2.63 - Gerrit Cole
2.79 - Kyle Bradish
2.81 - Sonny Gray
2.95 - Blake Snell

The Orioles' last four-game sweep in Chicago against the White Sox was back in 1995. The O's finished off the four-game sweep on July 9, 1995, by walloping the White Sox 11-2.