BALTIMORE — The Orioles proved this weekend that they’re not the worst team in the American League. They did little to dispel the notion that they’re the AL’s second-worst team.

A 3-2 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday featured three blunders on the basepaths, four defensive miscues and another mediocre offensive showing. All three games this weekend in the battle of the AL’s two worst teams were close contests, but the Orioles squeaked by in all three to win by a combined four runs. The series sweep is the Orioles’ first this season and their first at Camden Yards since April 2024.

Starting pitcher Charlie Morton continued his resurgence with another quality start, allowing only one unearned run in 6 2/3 innings. The offense — despite the base running — did just enough. With Félix Bautista unavailable after closing out the previous two victories, interim manager Tony Mansolino turned to Bryan Baker to record the game’s final three outs. Baker did so with aplomb, retiring the side in order and letting out a primal scream after striking out the final batter.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air, for sure. I think there’s a little bit of a different attitude in here,” Baker said. “Obviously getting the sweep and finishing the homestand strong like that is big. Obviously got a lot of work to do still — we should’ve won that game by about five runs today if we clean some stuff up, and we should — but a win’s a win. It’s awesome to get a sweep against a big league team.”

The start to the post-Brandon Hyde era got off to a rocky start with four straight losses, but Baltimore has started to get back on track over the past week. The Orioles (22-36) have won three straight for the second time in the past nine days and are winners of six of their past eight. They are 7-8 since Mansolino took over.

The Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the second on Ramón Urías’ RBI single and Ryan O’Hearn’s sacrifice fly off White Sox starter Adrian Houser, but the inning could’ve produced more runs if not for base running mistakes by Jackson Holliday and Maverick Handley. Later in the game, Heston Kjerstad was back-picked off third base by Chicago catcher Edgar Quero with one out.

The lone run off Morton scored because of a fielding error by Holliday on a Joshua Palacios ground ball. There was another defensive play that inning that Holliday didn’t make that could have resulted in an out. Earlier in the game, an error was charged to Handley for catcher’s interference, while Kjerstad didn’t corral a fly ball in right field to which Statcast gave a 95% catch probability.

“How great is it to be able to make mistakes, base running and defense, and still win the game?” Mansolino said. “When was the last time that kind of happened here this season? And that’s probably more a testament to our pitching and the ability to not let things unravel and blow up.”

Dylan Carlson provided the deciding run with an RBI double in the sixth, scoring Coby Mayo from first base on a smart send from new third base coach Buck Britton, to continue his hot week. Mike Tauchman cut the White Sox’s deficit in half in the seventh with a solo shot off reliever Gregory Soto, but Andrew Kittredge and Baker kept Chicago’s bats at bay the remainder of the way. The White Sox are 18-40 after losing a modern era-record 121 games last season.

The victory secures the club’s first winning week of the season — 10 weeks into the campaign.

“It seems like everybody’s looser,” Baker said. “We’re having a little bit of fun. It’s obviously easier to have fun when you win, but it just seems like everyone’s having a little bit more fun, we’re looser, not as uptight. It’s contagious.”

Instant analysis

Fair or not, there is nothing Morton can do to erase his awful April and the role it played in the Orioles’ slow start. There’s also nothing he can do to change the way general manager Mike Elias’ offseason investment in starting pitching will be viewed.

There will be no revisionist history here. But there can be redemption, and Morton is well on his way to achieving it.

A few weeks ago, Baltimore fans at Camden Yards immediately booed Morton as he jogged in from the bullpen. The last time Morton pitched as a reliever was to finish Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. The only other time in his career was as a rookie in 2008. After 18 seasons, more than 2,000 innings and over 40 years on Earth, it appeared Morton had run out of gas.

But Morton has rediscovered his curveball, his command and, most important, his confidence. Since May 10, Morton has a 1.64 ERA, a 0.86 WHIP and a 27.9% strikeout rate. On Sunday, as Morton slowly walked off the mound, the same fan base that booed him anytime he took the mound out of the bullpen gave him a standing ovation as loud as for any player this season.

“With everything that he’s been through this year, there’s been negativity surrounding him, and I get it,” Mansolino said. “I get we need guys to perform and all that, but this is also a guy that’s performed a long time in the big leagues, and to see the negativity but then the Baltimore fans stand up and give him a standing ovation coming off the mound, that was my favorite part. … That was nice to see cause we know Charlie the guy, we know how incredible he is and how accountable he is. It just makes us all bigger fans of him and makes us feel really good when we see Charlie be Charlie.”

His ERA is still high at 6.20 — down from 10.00 in late April and 8.82 about two weeks ago — but there’s little doubt that he’s one of this team’s best starting pitchers. It just happened two months later than Elias, Morton and the Orioles expected.

“It’s nice to feel like I’m more myself than a month ago,” Morton said.

What they’re saying

Morton when asked if the change he’s felt in the Orioles’ clubhouse recently is a result of the managerial change:

“No, I think it’s more to do with coming into the season and never getting positive momentum going, and that’s a result. And then results definitely dictate how you feel about yourself and how you feel as a team. You might be playing good baseball and just not winning. You might be playing really bad baseball and winning or just getting by. It just takes time for the dust to settle sometimes, and I’m not saying that’s what was going on here. I felt like in spring training, even early on, I felt like the guys were a tight group, but it was just like we couldn’t get going. … Everything’s kind of settling a little bit, you start to realize that it’s really not as bad as you think. If you keep feeling like it’s that bad, it’s probably going to get worse.”

By the numbers

For much of the season, the Orioles’ rotation has ranked as the AL’s worst. That’s no longer the case after the past week, which featured the best run of performances from Baltimore’s starters all year. The Orioles rotation’s 5.26 ERA ranks 14th of 15 AL teams, ahead of only the Athletics’ 5.40 ERA.

Over the past eight games, Orioles starters have pitched to a 2.09 ERA, including five starts with one or zero runs allowed. Morton, Dean Kremer and Zach Eflin all delivered excellent starts during this weekend’s sweep.

“Pitching, by and large, drives the show,” Morton said. “By and large, pitching wins baseball games over a 162-game season.”

Up next

After a day off on Monday, the Orioles head west for a six-game road trip in Seattle and Sacramento. It’s possible when the Orioles return to Baltimore next week that Colton Cowser, Jordan Westburg and others are back in action as their returns off the injured list appear near.

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