BALTIMORE – Wins have been scarce this season for the Chicago White Sox.
At least they'll have some extra time to savor this one.
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Jonathan Cannon pitched into the sixth inning and Nicky Lopez, Andrew Vaughn and Dominic Fletcher all homered for Chicago, which snapped a 12-game losing streak with an 8-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday. The White Sox have 109 losses, but on this night they avoided inching closer to the modern big league record of 120.
And they have Thursday off.
“It's been hard to come by, so we'll enjoy it and be ready for Friday,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said.
The White Sox have had three losing streaks of at least 12 games this year, which is unprecedented in the modern era. They lost the first two games of this series at Camden Yards by a combined 22-3, and a 9-0 loss Tuesday included two ejections and a pair of botched popups — plus a five-walk inning by Chicago's starting pitcher.
If that was a low point, the White Sox looked like a different team Wednesday.
“I think this was a night where it came together,” Sizemore said. “It was nice to get some balls falling in, get good pitching, and then just clean defense. That's the way we want to play. It shows those guys how they can do it.”
Lopez led off the game with a homer, and Vaughn and Fletcher went deep during a three-run fourth.
It was Lopez's first homer of the season.
“Kind of crazy, huh?” Lopez said. “I don't hit them often, so when I do it's obviously a good feeling. That's not the type of player I am, so I'm not going up there to hit them."
The White Sox hadn't won a game since Aug. 21, and they had a day off after that one as well. Then followed it with a dozen defeats before their next victory.
“It's been tough this year to get those, but every win, everyone feels good," Lopez said. “I feel like we're a broken record, but we pull so hard for each other in here. It's a close group.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb