Baltimore Orioles Sweep Half of Chicago

Aug 19, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones (10) scores a run against Chicago White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers (21) during the sixth inning at U.S Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox 4-3 on Wednesday evening to complete a three-game sweep. After a day off, they will continue in the Windy City with another three-game set against the Cubs – hoping for the same success.

The ingredients for success for the Orioles were all apparent again in this win. There was solid starting pitching, shutdown relief, power hitting, and flawless defense.

Wei-Yin Chen was not quite as sharp as Chris Tillman from the night before, but he managed to get out of a couple of jams and hold the Sox to only three runs on six hits in his 7.1 innings.

With a coming day off, I was surprised to see Showalter send him out again for the eighth inning. And after getting the leadoff out, sure enough a pair of singles followed and Darren O’Day needed to be summoned from the bullpen. He struck out two batters, setting up a 10-pitch, three up and three down bottom of the ninth for Zach Britton.

All of the Orioles four runs came on a trio of homers by Steve Pearce, Nelson Cruz, and Adam Jones—the eventual game-winning margin.

The Baltimore Orioles will now have an experience on Thursday that is largely outside their experiences for the 2014 season: A day off! Perhaps the schedule is finally working in their favor instead of creating extraordinary travel challenges.

The host Chicago Cubs will need to finish a suspended game, followed by the regularly-planned contest for this day against the Giants. The former situation has been caused by some malfunction of field equipment that made Wrigley unplayable on Tuesday. Major League Baseball supported the Giants in this claim. So the Cubs will enter the Friday series having played about 13-14 innings at least on the day before.