Orioles Game #15 Game Thread: at White Sox, 2:10pm

Today, all players in baseball will wear the number 42 in honor of the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Long removed from the worst of this formal segregation, it is hard to imagine it now, that Black players were simply not allowed to play. He endured a hatred that few of us will ever know just to prove that he could play with the best, and what he proved is he was one of the best of the best.

The stakes of a single regular season baseball game played in April will never be so great. No societal problems will be solved or barriers torn down here today. As we consider the fortunes in the early season of our favorite baseball team, it’s worth not losing sight of this history, or of the ways that such discrimination still lingers today, be it directly embedded into laws or indirectly carrying on through inertia from days when it was the law.

Now, the Orioles. They will be looking to pick up their first winning streak of at least three games in this afternoon’s contest. As we know from last year, firing off a long winning streak is a good way to stick yourself in a good position. You can’t get a long streak if you don’t start out with a modest one. Maybe today, the Orioles can do this.

They have been challenged in winning a bunch in a row early since their starting pitching has not been very good. In action today is the best of the group so far, which to my surprise is the Opening Day starter Kyle Gibson. His 3.44 ERA through three starts is pretty good already and would have been better still with competent outfield defense in that first game. The White Sox, as a team, have been just about an average offense so far.

Orioles batters will need to try to continue to make the 2023 season a miserable one for Chicago starter Michael Kopech. He’s sporting a 6.75 ERA in his first two games. If nothing else, the O’s need to make sure to get into the White Sox bullpen, which sports an MLB-worst 7.71 ERA up to this point in the season.

Orioles lineup

1. Cedric Mullins - CF
2. Adley Rutschman - DH
3. Ryan Mountcastle - 1B
4. Anthony Santander - RF
5. Austin Hays - LF
6. Adam Frazier - 2B
7. Ramón Urías - 3B
8. James McCann - C
9. Jorge Mateo - SS

The Orioles lineup is going to seem a lot better when leadoff man Mullins gets it going (.627 OPS so far), and better still when Santander in the cleanup spot turns around this even worse slump (.491 OPS). Until then, perhaps Rutschman can keep carrying the day, with help occasionally from others.

White Sox lineup

1. Andrew Benintendi - LF
2. Luis Robert Jr. - CF
3. Andrew Vaughn - 1B
4. Eloy Jiménez - DH
5. Yasmani Grandal - C
6. Jake Burger - 3B
7. Oscar Colas - RF
8. Lenyn Sosa - 2B
9. Elvis Andrus - SS