Orioles step up in clutch and defeat White Sox 5-3 (updated)

Moving away from the American League East doesn’t necessarily feel like a great escape for the Orioles.

They host the White Sox for three games and travel to Houston and Cleveland. Two leaders of their own divisions and a team battling for a wild card spot. Everyone with something to play for during the fourth week of August.

“They’re good,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “No breaks here.”

The Orioles caught one in the first inning tonight when Dylan Cease hung a slider that Ryan Mountcastle turned into a three-run homer to trump Eloy Jiménez’s two-run shot off Austin Voth in the top half. And two more when balls that would have been home runs in past years ricocheted off the top of the left field wall, forcing the White Sox to settle for doubles measured at 405 and 402 feet.

Voth bent a lot without snapping, and the Orioles made the most of a few clutch swings in a 5-3 win at Camden Yards.

Félix Bautista escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth and notched a five-out save, and the Orioles (64-58) rose to six games above .500 for the fourth time this season.

The White Sox kept unraveling when given opportunities, but pinch-hitter Andrew Vaughn’s two-out single off Cionel Pérez in the seventh scored Luis Robert, who had the 402-foot double, and reduced the lead to 4-3. Pérez inherited a runner from Dillon Tate and extended the inning by walking Yoán Moncada.

The response again was swift. Austin Hays doubled off Jake Diekman in the bottom of the seventh, Jimmy Lambert entered with two outs, and Jorge Mateo singled into left field for his seventh RBI in the last four games.

The road to Bautista’s ninth save began with a three-pitch strikeout of Robert after he replaced Joey Krehbiel with runners on the corners. A.J. Pollock advanced to second base on a wild pitch, a fastball clocked at 103.1 mph, and Bautista drilled Jiménez on the left elbow with a 102.3 mph fastball that forced Chicago’s designated hitter out of the game.

José Abreu ran the count full and chased a high 100.8 mph fastball.

Bautista retired the side in order in the ninth with another strikeout and embraced catcher Adley Rutschman.

"He impresses every time he goes out there," Voth said. "His stuff is just unhittable right now, and I would not want to be a hitter."

The 27 pitches were a career high for Bautista. The six batters were the most since he faced seven in the second game of a May 28 doubleheader in Boston.

"When I entered the game I was put in a difficult position with runners on first and third, only one out, but the mentality remained the same when I got out there," said Bautista, among eight pitchers in the Statcast era to be clocked at least 103 mph. "It was, get the job done. Whatever the team needs, I need to go out there and execute.

"In addition to that, I thought it wasn't going to be easy from the get-go, especially with the heart of their lineup coming into the game. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I had to go out there and fight."

Hyde didn't plan on a multi-inning save for Bautista, with 1 2/3 the most for the rookie among his converted opportunities. 

"The game kind of called for it, just the way Robert comes up with two runners on and we're up two," Hyde said. "That's such a great middle of the order with Robert and Eloy and Abreu. I just wanted to put my best guy out there at that time.

"I think he did pretty good."

Rougned Odor called time and headed to the mound to speak with Bautista after the hit-by-pitch, making certain that it didn't rattle him.

"I think you saw some leadership on the field with Roogie going out and settling him down a little bit, because that squared up Eloy, and that's unfortunate because he's a really good player," Hyde said. "I think it shook up Félix at first. He was kind of standing between the mound and home plate, hoping that Eloy was OK, and Roogie did a great job of kind of getting him back in the moment. Big at-bat against Abreu."

"The mentality, it doesn't change from batter to batter for me," Bautista said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. "Unfortunately, I hit Jiménez and it's not something I wanted to do, but after that I refocused and told myself I needed to attack the strike zone again. And luckily I was able to settle in after that and do just that."

The bullpen is under more pressure with Jorge López traded to the Twins and the bridge to the closer swaying.

"There's going to be ups and downs in a season, and right now we're not at our best in the bullpen," Hyde said. "We've been really good for the majority of the year. I think our guys are going to bounce back. But we've given up some runs, which, we were so good the first half that it was hard to be perfect for six months. But we have a lot of confidence in our guys and we're going to continue to throw them out there and try to find the right combination to close games."

Cease hadn’t allowed more than one earned run in 14 consecutive games before his last two starts. The Astros scored three runs in five innings, and the Orioles matched that output in the first.

They didn’t score again until the sixth. They didn’t get another hit until that inning.

"I thought our at-bats the first couple innings off him were good," Hyde said. "We got his pitch count up, and then he settled in, and we didn't do much the rest of his outing."

Working on six days’ rest, Cease was victimized by Cedric Mullins’ leadoff bunt single in the first and an eight-pitch walk to Rutschman that pushed the right-hander’s season total to 59, most in the majors. Anthony Santander flied to the warning track in right field and Mountcastle sent a slider 420 feet to center for a 3-2 lead.

Cease retired the next six batters and walked Rutschman again in the third, this time on five pitches. Rutschman leads the club with 43 walks in 74 games. Santander is next with 41 in 114.

Mountcastle’s homer was the last hit for the Orioles until Santander lined an RBI single into center field in the sixth, after Mullins walked and moved to second base on Cease’s errant pickoff throw. The Cy Young candidate retired 14 of 16 batters before Santander’s at-bat.

Not as dominant as his one-run, 13-strikeout performance in seven innings against the Orioles in June, but getting him out of his groove proved difficult.

"That was a game-changer right there, just to be able to have the lead going into the second inning," Voth said of Mountcastle's homer. "Kind of like a restart button, basically, for me to just go out there and try to keep dealing and putting up zeros and give our team a chance to keep winning."

Santander has 68 RBIs to lead the club. He’s also first in home runs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Voth allowed two runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. He came within a strike of his only clean frame, but Seby Zavala singled with two outs in the sixth and the count full, and Bryan Baker entered the game.

Mateo made a sliding stop of Pollock’s ground ball up the middle and flipped to Terrin Vavra for the force.

The 93 pitches from Voth are the most since he threw 105 in the opening game of a Sept. 22, 2020 doubleheader with the Nationals.

"That whole outing I felt like I didn't have good command of my fastball, I was searching for my curveball, had runners on every inning," he said. "Just to be able to get out of some of those jams was huge."

The White Sox got nothing in the second after Gavin Sheets’ leadoff single, or the third after Robert singled with one out and Jiménez walked. Sheets led off the fourth with another single, Zavala walked with two outs, and Voth stranded them after a visit from pitching coach Chris Holt.

Robert led off the fifth with a double, Jiménez walked, Baker started to warm and Voth retired the next three batters. Abreu lined to Vavra for the first out.

Zavala’s one-out double in the eighth, traveling 405 feet to left, was followed by Pollock’s infield single, Bautista’s dramatic entrance and some serious heat.

Just like the pennant race they refuse to leave.

Down on the farm, first-overall draft pick Jackson Holliday is moving up to Single-A Delmarva and will make his debut Thursday night at home against Lynchburg. The Florida Complex League completed its schedule today, with Holliday going 2-for-3 and batting .409 with a 1.167 OPS, one double, one home run, three RBIs, 10 walks and three stolen bases in eight games.

Jordan Westburg hit a two-run homer for Triple-A Norfolk off former Orioles left-hander Josh Rogers before the game was suspended in the fourth inning due to rain.

Joey Ortiz, Conner Norby and César Prieto each had two hits for Double-A Bowie. Prieto also had two RBIs.

Chayce McDermott struck out seven batters in 4 1/3 innings, but he also allowed six runs and five hits, walked four batters and surrendered two home runs.

High-A Aberdeen first baseman TT Bowens went 3-for-3 with three RBIs, a walk and two runs scored before coming out of the game. Connor Gillispie allowed one earned run (two total) and struck out seven in four innings.