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The Chicago White Sox had a four-run lead and Dylan Cease on the mound.
That’s usually a winning combination.
But it wasn’t enough to secure their first series victory of the season Sunday as the Sox fell to the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 in front of 13,794 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“That was a tough one,” manager Pedro Grifol said.
Cedric Mullins drove in the go-ahead run with a single to center in the eighth inning against reliever Aaron Bummer. The Orioles added two more in the eighth and another in the ninth on the way to taking two of three in the series.
With the disappointing defeat, the Sox fell to 0-4-1 in series this season.
“We definitely haven’t played up to our abilities,” Cease said. “There’s still a lot of season left. We’ve just got to clean it up a little bit.”
The Sox started strong after a 2-hour, 22-minute weather delay with four runs in the first thanks to a three-run homer by Gavin Sheets and a solo blast by Jake Burger.
The bats went silent after that against Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez.
“He’s a great pitcher,” Burger said. “He’s got really good stuff. He started mixing a lot better. Some days you don’t have it the first inning and you come back and figure it out.”
Rodriguez, 23, allowed four runs on six hits with eight strikeouts and two walks in five innings. All four runs and three of the six hits came in the first.
He settled in after that, giving up three singles the rest of his outing.
“He ended up going to his off-speed stuff and he was throwing it for strikes,” Grifol said. “He was mixing it up. He made some adjustments. But we’ve got to continue to tack on if we want to put those types of games away.”
The Sox had four hits after the first and finished with 13 strikeouts, four by cleanup hitter Eloy Jiménez.
“I don’t know if we expanded the strike zone or not,” Grifol said, “but we had a good game plan going in and got some pitches up in the zone in the first inning, did some damage, and after that we did not make adjustments. (Rodriguez) changed his approach a little bit. But from my end, he made adjustments and we didn’t.”
The Orioles had already scored once in the fourth when a two-out fielding error by Burger at third base extended the inning. Mullins followed with a two-run triple to cut the Sox lead to 4-3.
“Back-side ground ball, I lost it for a second right off the bat,” Burger said. “Got a late read on it and kind of skipped up on me. It never feels good to do that. For me, it feels like it’s always with Cease on the mound.
“It’s kind of disappointing to me that I made that play. But I think last year probably would have made another mistake in the game. I felt like I bounced back pretty well.”
The Orioles tied the game in the sixth on a wild pitch. Cease allowed two earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and five walks in six innings.
“I felt pretty good; unfortunately I didn’t ever really get into a rhythm,” Cease said. “It was one of those starts where it was just a grind the entire start.”
Cease threw 113 pitches. Grifol said of staying with Cease in the sixth: “Dylan is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He had enough pitches to go into that sixth and finish the sixth. I’d do it again tomorrow. Everybody knows the bullpen has been taxed a little bit. Either way, Dylan is one of the best pitchers in the game.”
Mullins broke the tie with his RBI single in the eighth. He had three hits and four RBIs while the Sox lost for the seventh time in 10 games.
“We’ve got to minimize baserunners,” Grifol said. “They had a lot of traffic the last three games, but we also had leads in three games. So I’m not going to sit here and say we’re close. That’s not what this is about. We’ve got to make adjustments and minimize baserunners and walks (26 in the series), hit with runners in scoring position — all of the above to help us win games.
“But it’s not like it’s a lack of effort. These guys are working. It’s one of those runs. We’re going to put it together at some point on both ends of the ball.”
Before the game, the Sox placed infielder Hanser Alberto on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Saturday, with a strained left quadriceps. They also selected the contract of outfielder Adam Haseley from Triple-A Charlotte and designated infielder/outfielder Nick Solak for assignment.
