BALTIMORE — Noah Schultz hadn’t surrendered a hit through the first four innings of his return from the injured list on Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles.
The left-hander ran into some trouble in the fifth.
Tyler O’Neill began the inning with a home run. And then with one out, Schultz allowed a walk and a single. Those two runners later scored as part of a four-run inning for the Orioles in a 6-1 victory against the Sox in front of 19,045 at Camden Yards.
“There’s definitely good things to take out,” Schultz said. “But at the end of the day, four walks (in the game), and three being to lefties, definitely not ideal. Something I’ve got to clean up for the next outing.”
The Sox (45-40) had to settle for taking two out of three against the Orioles after dropping the finale of the series. They head to Cleveland with a one-game lead over the Guardians (45-42) in the American League Central standings. The teams meet for a four-game series beginning Thursday at Progressive Field.
Schultz allowed three runs on two hits with seven strikeouts and four walks in 4 1/3 innings. It was his first outing with the Sox since May 24 at San Francisco. The 2022 first-round draft pick from Oswego East went on the injured list retroactive to May 25 with right knee patellar tendinitis.
“Overall, it was solid,” manager Will Venable said of Schultz’s start. “I thought he had good stuff. When he was in the zone, it was really good. Four walks there put him in a tough spot. First few he got away with, but yeah, tough to walk four guys there to be able to evade them scoring.
“Overall, we walked seven guys as a staff. So just makes it tough to hold a good offense down when you give that many free passes.”
Schultz returned after making three rehab starts with Triple-A Charlotte. He was reinstated on Wednesday while the Sox optioned pitcher Tyler Schweitzer to Charlotte in the corresponding move.
“Definitely saw some things that I want to work on and clean up,” Schultz said. “But felt good to be back.”
Schultz went to the mound with the lead thanks to Sam Antonacci, who homered off Orioles starter Dean Kremer on the second pitch of the game.
But Kremer settled in, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk in six innings. The Sox finished with four hits, two by Antonacci.
“A nice way to start the game with (the home run by) Antonacci there, and then just really couldn’t get anything going,” Venable said. “A couple of pivotal plays, the play by O’Neill (making a diving catch in right field with two on to end the fourth), really big play there by him, a great play. We’d score at least one there, and maybe things look a little different.
“But credit to Kremer and the rest of the guys behind him, did a really good job.”
Schultz walked the leadoff batter but struck out two in a hitless first inning. He struck out the side in the fourth as the Sox held on to the 1-0 lead.
The game flipped in the fifth, starting with O’Neill’s home run to left field. Schultz exited after surrendering the single to Blaze Alexander.
Reliever Bryan Hudson entered with two on and one out. Gunnar Henderson singled to load the bases. Adley Rutschman followed with a run-scoring single, giving the Orioles a 2-1 lead. Taylor Ward collected an RBI on a sacrifice fly to right, extending Baltimore’s lead to 3-1.
Henderson later scored on a wild pitch by reliever Trevor Richards.
“I think Noah, whether he was running out of gas a little bit, or just good at-bats by them, just ran up against it,” Venable said. “I thought he’d pitched pretty well to that point and just at the end of his day wasn’t able to get the outs that he needed. 0-2 pitch to Alexander there hurt him as well.
“And then, (Hudson has) been so good for us. They put a couple balls in play hard and made it tough on him, but really credit to the Orioles putting good at-bats together.”
The Orioles added one run each in the sixth and eighth innings, handing the Sox just their third loss in their last nine games.
“Bummed about today, but we’ll regroup and be ready for a big series against (the Guardians), which obviously we’re very excited about,” Venable said.
Caleb Bonemer named to MLB All-Star Futures Game
Infielder Caleb Bonemer will represent the Sox at the MLB All-Stars Futures Game, which will be July 12 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
Bonemer is the top prospect in the Sox system, according to MLB Pipeline. The 2024 second-round draft pick entered Wednesday slashing .243/.381/.526 with 17 doubles, 19 home runs, 51 RBIs, 56 runs, 46 walks and a .907 OPS in 73 games between High-A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham. That includes slashing .267/.377/.378 with two doubles, one home run, eight RBIs, four runs and eight walks in 12 games since being promoted to Double A on June 16.
The Futures Game brings together many of the top prospects in baseball.
