Rutschman delivers off the bench, rescues Orioles in 6-4 win over White Sox

The O’s blew a 4-0 lead to the worst team in baseball, but Adley’s clutch hit broke an eighth-inning tie to seal the Birds’ second straight victory in Chicago.

The Orioles’ matchup against MLB’s worst team sure hasn’t turned into the stress-free romp we might’ve hoped. But after another white-knuckle contest, the O’s emerged with their second win in as many games against the White Sox, 6-4, led by Adley Rutschman’s pinch-hit heroics in the eighth, Colton Cowser’s brilliant game-ending defensive play, and, of course, another Gunnar Henderson homer.

It sure is nice to have a lot of young talent, huh?

Corbin Burnes, not quite as young but also quite talented, started this game for the Birds and cruised through the first few innings against an anemic White Sox offense, dispatching nine of the first 10 batters he faced while barely breaking a sweat. Even when Chicago mounted its first rally in the fourth, loading the bases on two walks and a single (well-blocked in the outfield grass by second baseman Jorge Mateo to prevent a run), Burnes needed just one pitch to induce a rally-killing comebacker from Andrew Benintendi, keeping the White Sox off the board through four.

Meanwhile, it took the Orioles’ offense a little while to get going against White Sox starter Chris Flexen, who entered the game with a 5.48 ERA. The veteran right-hander began his outing with two scoreless innings before the O’s broke through in the third. With two outs, Gunnar Henderson flicked a half-swing, duck-snort flare that landed just fair behind the third base dirt, which he hustled into a double. The exit velocity was a mere 55.9 mph, but it’s a line drive in the box score. Jordan Westburg followed with a much more emphatic two-bagger, crunching a 102.4 mph shot into the gap in right-center to bring home Henderson.

Other than that, Flexen worked two times through the Orioles’ lineup with little damage, but — as the Apple TV+ broadcast pointed out — he’s been particularly bad the third time through the order this year, surrendering a .421 average and 1.455 OPS. And sure enough, when Henderson faced Flexen for a third time, he managed much better than a bloop double. With a runner aboard, Gunnar crushed a no-doubt-about-it, 411-foot homer to the opposite field, his 17th of the year. Seventeen! And we still have a week left in May! Gunnar is unreal, you guys. That moved him into a tie with the Astros’ Kyle Tucker for the MLB home run lead.

All three batters that Flexen faced a third time reached base, as Henderson’s homer was followed by a Westburg walk and Ryan O’Hearn single to end his night. Reliever Justin Anderson failed to put out the fire. Ryan Mountcastle greeted him with a scorching double to deep left-center, but the O’s caught a bad break when the ball bounded on the warning track and over the wall. Westburg scored, but O’Hearn, who otherwise would’ve scored easily, was forced to go back to third on the ground-rule double. He and Mountcastle were both stranded in scoring position when Anthony Santander flied out.

Still, the Orioles had a comfortable 4-0 lead and their ace was cruising on the mound. Things are well in hand, right? …Right?

Yeah, no. Is this your first time watching the Orioles?

All of a sudden, Burnes couldn’t command his cutter in the bottom of the fifth. After striking out the first batter, he was tattooed for three consecutive hits — two singles and an Andrew Vaughn RBI double — that got the White Sox on the board. With two still in scoring position, Burnes struck out Gavin Sheets, leaving him one out away from escaping the inning with minimal damage. But he hung yet another cutter to Paul DeJong, who rocketed it back up the middle for a two-run single.

In a flash, the Orioles’ four-run lead had been whittled to just one. Corbin, my man, what’s going on? It was the first time he’d allowed four hits in one inning since last June, when he was a Brewer. I wouldn’t have expected it would happen against this particular team. The next batter, Corey Julks, also hit a sharp liner, but fortunately directly at Santander in right to end the laborious inning.

Burnes faced some trouble in the sixth, too, though not really of his own doing. Korey Lee led off with a bunt in front of the plate and inadvertently dropped his bat on catcher James McCann, preventing him from making a play on the ball. Lee reached first safely, and though Brandon Hyde argued that Lee should be called for interference, the umps let the play stand. I suppose the Orioles, who were the beneficiaries of a controversial interference call the previous night, couldn’t count on lightning striking twice.

The runner reached third with one out on a stolen base and a throwing error by McCann, but Burnes kept him stranded there, inducing a shallow flyout followed by his sixth strikeout. Burnes was finished for the night, working six innings and giving up three runs, which gave him his sixth consecutive quality start. He has yet to allow more than three runs in any outing this season, which is pretty darn impressive, even if I wouldn’t hate seeing him pitch a little deeper into games sometimes.

Alas, Corbin’s efforts almost immediately went for naught at the hands of the Orioles’ porous bullpen. Tasked with getting nine outs before giving up a run, the relief crew got only one before Yennier Cano served up a game-tying homer to Vaughn in the seventh. Sigh. A once 4-0 Orioles lead was officially squandered.

But not for long. In the top of the eighth, as a downpour pelted Guaranteed Rate Field, the Orioles offense came alive again. White Sox reliever John Brebbia never looked comfortable in the rain-soaked conditions, constantly trying to scrape mud off of his cleats with the…cleat cleaner thing? What’s that called? That doohickey on the back of the mound with the spikes. You know what I’m talking about. Anyway, Brebbia gave up an O’Hearn leadoff double and a Santander walk, and even the two outs he recorded were two blistering liners to center that Tommy Pham tracked down.

With two on and two out, Chicago manager Pedro Grifol turned to his relief ace, Michael Kopech, to preserve the tie, while Hyde countered with pinch-hitter Adley Rutschman. All the cards, it seemed, were stacked against Rutschman; he was 1-for-9 in his career as a pinch-hitter, he was OPS’ing only .629 against right-handers this year, and Kopech had held lefties to just three hits in 37 at-bats.

But this is Adley Freaking Rutschman. He doesn’t care about your stats. Rutschman worked the count full and then laced a sinking liner to left field. Benintendi made a desperate dive attempt but came just short, trapping it on one bounce. O’Hearn scored and Santander, racing right behind him, made a nifty slide into the plate to elude Lee’s tag, upping the Orioles’ lead to 6-4. Adley Rutschman, you magnificent son of a gun, you’ve done it again. Even getting only one at-bat tonight, he made it the most impactful of the game.

This time, the Orioles’ bullpen held firm. Danny Coulombe worked past a leadoff single for a scoreless eighth inning, setting the stage for closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth. After a leadoff strikeout, Kimbrel got some help from his friends. Nicky Lopez trickled a weak grounder behind the mound that could’ve turned into an infield single, but Mateo made an impressive charge to field it and throw in one motion, nipping the runner at first.

Chicago’s last hope was Pham, and he blasted a ball to center field that looked like a surefire dinger, until Colton Cowser did his best Cedric Mullins impression with a brilliant, game-ending home run robbery.

What a way to end it. These Orioles, even when they’re frustrating, sure are entertaining to watch.