BALTIMORE — It was a sloppy first inning — and manager Pedro Grifol promised to address it with his team later, perhaps on the flight back to Chicago — and it looked like an Orioles win for a sweep from the get-go. But the White Sox and Dylan Cease recovered from a defensively shabby four-run first inning and came away with a 10-5 victory Wednesday at Camden Yards.
For a team trying to avoid a 100-loss season, an organization ready to name Chris Getz as the new head of its front office with 37 games left in a downright awful season, the victory against one of the best teams provided a minor respite on the eve of a welcome day off.
“I’m proud of the offensive side of the ball, but as a team and organization we have to focus on the little things as we move forward,” Grifol said.
“There are some things we have to clean up. We have to hit cutoff guys.”
Grifol could have gone on about the sizable cleanup task that lies ahead. That’s something he and Getz have had multiple conversations about in recent days. There is personnel to be assessed, fixes to be made and multiple “boxes to be checked,” as Grifol put it. Things Getz will be asked about soon.
The Sox cleaned up their first-inning mess Wednesday with two-run homers by Andrew Vaughn and Oscar Colas, Luis Robert Jr.’s 35th of the season and 109 pitches over six innings by Cease (6-7, 4.91 ERA), who bit his tongue about the defense behind him.
“The first was just a combination of them putting some good at-bats together, me making some not so great pitches and one of those innings that’s not ideal [defensively],” Cease said. “Just let it go and keep battling.”
Robert became the 14th Sox (24th time) to hit 35 homers in a season. Frank Thomas did it seven times. Orioles starter Kyle Gibson (13-8) served up all three homers.
Vaughn hit his 17th homer and Colas his fourth.
Cease allowed five runs on six hits and three walks. He struck out seven batters, touching 97.8 mph with his fastball and -getting 19 swings and misses.
“I feel like I pitched better than my line, really,” Cease said.
Third baseman Elvis Andrus, Vaughn and Robert each had two hits and Vaughn also doubled and drove in three runs. The Sox (53-82) handed the Orioles (83-50) just their ninth loss in August after getting outscored 18-3 in the first two games of the series.
Who’s in charge
While the hire or hires to replace Ken Williams and Rick Hahn await, communication with assistant general managers Getz and Jeremy Haber has been “really good,” Grifol said.
“[Chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf] made it clear Chris and Jeremy and myself would do things until he makes a decision,” Grifol said. “[An announcement hasn’t been made] yet, we’re just continuing to be led by Chris and Jeremy until something happens.”
This and that
Robert extended his club record for homers by a center fielder, notched his 200th career RBI and has reached safely in 18 of 22 games in August. He also beat out a ground ball to third base for a single.
“The kind of thing that separates the superstars,” Grifol said.
† Eloy Jimenez tied a career high with four hits.
† Tim Anderson is two hits shy of 1,000 for his career.
