MLB: Chicago White Sox 9, Orioles 6 (July 30)

WP: Neal Cotts (3-0)
LP: Chris Ray (0-3)
S: Dustin Hermanson (24)

BAL: 51-52 (4th in AL East, 6.5 behind Boston, 4.5 behind New York, 1.5 behind Toronto)

For the second time in three games, an Oriole pitcher took a come-backer off the hand and had to leave the game before finishing three innings.

This time, it was Daniel Cabrera taking a hard liner off his pitching hand that knocked him out of the game.

The Orioles looked as though they would recover, though, scoring four runs in the third inning to go up 4-2 after loading the bases with none out. Brian Roberts hit a double that scored two, then a wild pitch scored David Newhan from third, then Eric Byrnes earned his first Orioles RBI by knocking in Roberts with a double of his own.

But the lead wouldn't last, as the White Sox tied the game with two runs in the fifth off of Monday's scheduled starter, Bruce Chen, who was pitching to try to give the bullpen some rest.

Rafael Palmeiro gave the O's another two-run lead with a blast in the sixth, but Chris Ray gave up a three-run homer to A.J. Pierzynski and a solo shot to Jermaine Dye to make it an 8-6 White Sox lead.

The Sox added an insurance run in the ninth.

The loss drops the Orioles to under .500.

Eric Byrnes batted second and went 1-for-5 with an RBI in his first game with the Orioles.

The O's will look to get back to .500 (that's so depressing) when they take on the White Sox again tomorrow at 8:05 p.m. on ESPN. Rodrigo Lopez (9-5, 4.37 ERA, throws right) will pitch for the O's against Freddy Garcia (10-4, 3.76 ERA, throws right).

THOUGHTS:
This one was particularly hard to take because Cabrera got knocked out and they STILL looked like they could win, but the bullpen couldn't hold. Now that's not completely their fault, because they have worked a lot of innings over the past few games, but it is disheartening none the less.

They keep blowing leads, and you almost have to think that eventually they are going to hold some of those and hopefully reel off a winning streak. Until then, this is looking real bad real fast.