With his swing in the first inning, Gunnar Henderson launched himself past two franchise greats.
The leadoff home run, which momentarily tied a game that wound up getting away from the Orioles, gave Henderson his 35th home run of the season — and with it, he broke a three-way tie for the most homers from an Orioles shortstop in history.
Before his solo homer, Henderson was level with Cal Ripken Jr. (1991) and Miguel Tejada (2004). But Henderson, as a 23-year-old, has a blend of speed and power that even surpasses those standout shortstops. He now stands alone in Baltimore history, and his two other base hits continued what has been an exceptional second season from the reigning American League Rookie of the Year.
“He’s having a heck of a season so far,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Just doing a little bit of everything and that’s some serious company when you’re on those lists and passing those type of players.”
While Henderson hit away, though, his teammates whiffed. The Chicago White Sox avoided a sweep in Baltimore by beating the Orioles, 8-1.
Apart from Henderson’s three-hit day, the other Orioles hitters finished 4-for-27 against Chicago’s pitching staff. Adley Rutschman accounted for one hit, Anthony Santander added another, and Cedric Mullins provided two knocks. Otherwise, the offense was dull despite breaking out in blowout wins Monday and Tuesday.
“Well, we only had — how many hits? Not many,” Hyde said. “So, Gunnar swung the bat well. I thought [right-hander Jonathan] Cannon had really good stuff, honestly. I thought he has a ton of life to his two-seam fastball and cutter. The two-seam fastball, he’s really running kind of front hip on our left-handers and using both sides of the plate. That being said, we punched out way too many times. I thought they forced the action offensively way better than we did. So, not a real good night offensively.”
For Henderson, the three hits continue a recent surge. Henderson hit .140 over a 13-game span to end August, but he has hits in five straight games now. Henderson said he feels like he has “been making strides in the right direction,” and while it’s a long season and “the body kind of wears down,” he’s confident that he’s finding a rhythm again at the plate.
Not many other Orioles could relate Wednesday.
It didn’t help that right-hander Albert Suárez recorded one of his worst outings this season. The three homers against him were a season high — and tied a career-high set in 2016 — and Suárez allowed eight hits. The six runs against him tied his season high.
White Sox infielder Nicky Lopez opened the game with a homer to set the tone, but it wasn’t until the fourth inning that Chicago broke through in bunches. Designated hitter Andrew Vaughn hit a solo homer and outfielder Dominic Fletcher followed with a two-run shot. Those White Sox hitters jumped on Suárez’s off-speed offerings that hung in the zone.
And in the fifth, Suárez was lifted after allowing another run via Luis Robert Jr.’s double. He left two runners on base for left-hander Keegan Akin to inherit, and the sixth run scored.
“Missing location,” Suárez said. “They were aggressive today. They took advantage of that. Every time I’m behind in the count, I throw the ball in the strike zone, they swing aggressive.”
Still, against the worst team in baseball, Baltimore felt within reach for much of the game. Henderson and Rutschman reached base with two outs in the sixth, but a potential rally ended when pinch hitter Eloy Jiménez flew out to center.
They mounted another comeback threat in the eighth when Jackson Holliday led off with a walk. But strikeouts from James McCann, Henderson and Rutschman ended the frame. Two more were stranded in the ninth, although Baltimore was further behind at that point because left-hander Cionel Pérez struggled to find his command in the top half of the frame. He walked two, allowed two singles and gave up two runs. The White Sox, as anemic as their offense generally is, recorded 15 hits.
Baltimore will scoreboard watch for the rest of the year. The Orioles are locked in a tight division race with the New York Yankees, who lost to the Texas Rangers, 10-6, despite a four-run ninth-inning rally that only ended because Giancarlo Stanton was robbed of a three-run home run.
Baltimore entered with a half-game lead in the American League East but failed to build on that by dropping the final game of the series to Chicago.
There was still history made, however, when Henderson led off hours before with a homer. On Twitter, Ripken posted a smiley face emoji in response to a video on Henderson’s blast.
Ripken’s joint-record has fallen, but like so many other fans, he gets a thrill from watching the new franchise shortstop swing.
“It’s definitely something that I’m going to hold very dear to me,” Henderson said. “To pass those guys in something, in any type of Orioles history, is pretty special.”
