Unlikely homer, wasted scoring chance and mistakes doom O's

Leave it to the Orioles' luck that on the day John Means starts the second game of a doubleheader, their losing streak reaching 11 games, the opposition sends out a pitcher with a lower ERA.

A neat trick, considering how stingy Means is allowing runs.

Billy Hamilton, the well-traveled outfielder known for his speed rather than his swing, homered off Means with two outs in the fourth inning, José Abreu hit a two-run shot in the fifth after a cheap two-out single ahead of him and the While Sox swept the Orioles with a 3-1 victory.

Lance Lynn blanked the Orioles on three hits in five innings, pulled after 82 pitches, and they head into Sunday's finale at 17-35 and losers of 19 of their last 21 games. They wasted a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity in the sixth by scoring only one run.

"We've had some difficult streaks, for sure. This is probably up there with the hardest one," Means said.

"I was really hoping to pitch better to get the win, and I should have pitched better, but didn't get it done today and I'll just try to do it next time."

"This is hard, there's no doubt about it," said manager Brandon Hyde. "This is very, very challenging, this is very difficult, it's frustrating, embarrassing at times. We want to be able to compete in the big leagues. And we're finding out about our guys. That's the bottom line. We have some guys that we wanted to look at this year and we're finding out about them from an evaluation standpoint. That's good. But you want to put a competitive product on the field, and when we're facing good clubs that are built to win with starting pitching that is good, we have a tough time scoring runs.

"I knew taking the job that it was going to be a lot of work and it was going to be a rebuilding process. I did understand that. I'm frustrated a little bit because you want to give the fans of Baltimore something to look forward to and something to hang their hat on, something to be positive about. John Means is doing that, right? Trey Mancini, what he's done the last three years. You see what (Anthony) Santander has done, so those are positive things. You want to continue.

"I felt like we had momentum last year, I thought we played pretty well in kind of a weird year, especially that first month when teams weren't quite ready to play and kind of helped us out. But we stayed competitive throughout the second month, even though we lost a ton of games, lost a lot of close games. We just didn't have the bullets, honestly, to compete with those types of teams. And now this year we got off to a decent start, lost some games we should have won, .500-ish and this has been a really tough stretch. No doubt. We look overmatched at times, for me, we have a really tough time with good starting pitching, and we've got to get better offensively. We've got to get better up here and this is going to take a little while."

Hamilton had 22 home runs in 3,180 career plate appearances with six teams, five since 2018, before lifting a Means fastball over the left field fence. His last homer came in his final game of 2020, with the Cubs on Sept. 27 at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Indians signed Hamilton as a free agent in February and released him in March, and the White Sox signed him three days later.

Yoán Moncada reached with two outs in the fifth on a broken-bat looper that shortstop Freddy Galvis appeared to lose in the shadows, the ball glancing off his glove. Plate umpire Edwin Moncoso squeezed Means with Abreu at the plate, a changeup hung over the middle and the result was predictable.

Means has allowed 11 home runs this season.

"It just happens," he said. "I'm a fly ball pitcher and it's going to happen in the big leagues."

Aaron Bummer replaced Lynn and filled the bases with no outs. Galvis failed to tag at third base as Hamilton made a lunging catch to rob Maikel Franco, but Codi Heuer hit Stevie Wilkerson on the elbow to force in a run.

Ryan Mountcastle struck out and Chance Sisco grounded out, making the Orioles 4-for-53 with runners in scoring position in their last six games.

"I think Freddy just got a little off third base too far on that play and couldn't recover to get back and tag," Hyde said. "We had an opportunity there in the sixth inning. Lance Lynn pretty much dominated us for five, and then (we) had an opportunity there in the sixth with the bases loaded, and the punchout hurt there. Just not getting big hits in big spots right now."

Franco singled with one out in the second inning for the only hit off Lynn until Sisco's two-out single in the fifth. Sisco would have scored the tying run on Ryan McKenna's double, but had to hold at third base when the ball hopped the fence.

Cedric Mullins struck out on an elevated fastball. The Orioles' luck strikes again.

Lynn entered today with a 1.51 ERA and lowered it to 1.37. Means went from 1.79 to 2.05 after allowing three runs in five innings. He threw 86 pitches, 58 for strikes.

Means used up 35 pitches in the first, far exceeding his season average of 14.4 per inning, but didn't allow a run or hit.

Tim Anderson saw seven pitches and struck out. Yasmani Grandal and Yermín Mercedes each drew nine-pitch walks. Abreu was hit before Mercedes loaded the bases.

Rookie Andrew Vaughn, drafted with the third pick in 2019, swung at a 3-0 fastball and flied to shallow right field. Means was off the hook and back in the dugout. A green light for Vaughn stopped a rally.

Because it's baseball and won't always make sense, Means retired the side in order on nine pitches in the second inning. He was John Means again, the imposter escorted out of the ballpark.

"I was rushing to get out front, to be honest," Means said. "I wasn't locating well and they were fouling pitches off, working counts deep, and it just wasn't going well. And I was pulling most of my pitches."

Means was forced to work harder in the third after Anderson led off with a single and DJ Stewart chased Moncada's fly ball into foul territory with one out, reached up and missed it. Moncada singled into center field, but Means retired the next two batters to leave his pitch count at 59.

Mullins reached on catcher's interference with two outs in the third and stole second base, but Galvis struck out on eight pitches.

More opportunities were lost later, along with another game.

"I was encouraged that second game," Hyde said. "Meansie's keeping us right there, it's a good major league baseball game, our dugout was very, very positive, encouraging guys at the plate. But yeah, it's hard to lose. No matter if you're rebuilding or trying to win a pennant, it's hard to lose, and it does stack up. From a coaching staff standpoint, we're honest, but we also need to continue to pat guys on the back, kick guys in the butt, continue to do the things we're doing, come to the ballpark the same way every day. And that's our job. And now it's their job to perform."

Tyler Nevin got his chance in the opener, making his major league debut and lining a double into right field in his first at-bat.

Nevin, who celebrated his 24th birthday today, broke down in tears when asked how he passed along the news of his promotion to his father, Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin. He apologized while lowering his head and putting a hand over his face.

"I called him," he said. "We have talked about that call for the past couple years now when it became more of a reality than just a dream. Every time I even talk about it I start to get choked up. But just ... he's helped me so much as a dad, as a mentor in this game. I always knew he'd be the first call. It was special, yeah. It was a lot like this, honestly. Not a lot of words, but the point got across. It was a very special moment."