Last night in Chicago, the Orioles started off their seven-game road trip with a dominating win over the Chicago White Sox, 10-4.
The offense busted out against a seemingly hapless White Sox team as they used a crazy five-run seventh inning to put them away. Matt Wieters — who I wrote about the other day — may finally be starting to look like the player we saw out of the minors, as he went 2-for-5, drove in four and hit his fourth homer of the year.
Robert Andino, who has filled in admirably for the injured J.J. Hardy, had three hits on the night. Brian Roberts drove in three and had two hits. I was looking through the stats after the game and didn’t know that Rpberts has driven in 19 RBI so far — that’s nice work from the leadoff spot for sure.
Luke Scott also homered in the 4th inning. That was his fourth of the year, a solo shot.
Jake Arrieta got the win with a so-so effort, going five innings and giving up three runs for his third win of the season. The bullpen — Clay Rapada, Jim Johnson and Jeremy Accardo — did a solid job overall, giving up a run in four innings of work. Meanwhile, a shaky John Danks took the loss.
The Orioles this season seem to have very little margin of error when it comes to them winning or losing; however, it was about time to see the offense finally getting things together and pounding a team they should beat.
The only downside from yesterday is to see Nick Markakis still scuffling. He had a couple of hard hit balls over the past few days; however, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him struggle this long. I think Markakis will be fine, but once he gets going, the Orioles will be that much better. He was 0-for-3 last night with two walks.
The Orioles will probably finish the month of April under .500; however, their 11-13 mark close to the end of April is a lot better than what they endured last year.
I’m really, really amazed at the White Sox. I expected them to be contenders this season, but so far they look absolutely terrible. They may have buried themselves now to the point where they are not coming back as a winning team. With their starting pitching and track record of their offense, they should be a lot better than their pathetic 10-17 record.
