Baltimore Orioles’ slugger Chris Davis entered Monday struggling this season. He was hitting .216 with 12 home runs and found himself in the dugout at the start of the game against the Chicago White Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. But in the biggest spot of the contest, with the game on the line, his number was called by manager Buck Showalter…and he delivered.
With Baltimore trailing by one run, Davis pinch hit for designated hitter Delmon Young with two runners on and one out in the bottom of the ninth. Davis smacked a 399-foot home run to right, giving the Orioles a 6-4 victory.
“Honestly, I was just trying to get a pitch out over the plate and hit something in the gap,” Davis said after the game on MLB.com. “Try to tie the game and pass it to the next guy and I was able to get a little bit more of it.”
The other three Baltimore runs also came on long balls. Center fielder Adam Jones gave the Orioles a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a blast to right-center. Catcher Caleb Joseph connected on a solo homer in the eighth.
Three of Chicago’s four runs were driven in by rookie sensation Jose Abreu. He grounded out to drive in the first White Sox run in the third inning. In the sixth, he hit a solo home run, which traveled 411 feet into the center field stands. The next inning, he smacked a double to left that scored catcher Tyler Flowers.
The other Chicago run came off the bat of third baseman Conor Gillaspie, who hit an RBI double to left in the sixth.
Both starting pitchers received no decisions. Chicago’s Chris Sale pitched six innings, giving up two runs and a career-high 11 hits. Baltimore’s Wei-Yin Chen lasted 5 2/3 innings, yielding three runs on six hits, reports ESPN.
The two clubs continue the three-game series on Tuesday night.