CHICAGO – Tony Mansolino was the Orioles third base coach and infield instructor last summer, not their interim manager, when Kyle Bradish tossed seven hitless innings in the White Sox’s home ballpark. The details are a bit fuzzy.

Rain delayed the start of the game for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Bradish matched his career high with 11 strikeouts and came out after 103 pitches. The first batter to face reliever Danny Coulombe ruined the drama by homering.

“How do I not remember this?” Mansolino asked this afternoon during his dugout media session.

“I hope he does it again tonight.”

Bradish walked the leadoff hitter, struck out the next two and surrendered back-to-back singles to give the White Sox an early lead. He wouldn’t chase history. The goal was much more simple. Just do the job well enough to give his team a chance to win.

Colton Cowser hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the sixth inning after Bradish worked out of another jam, and the Orioles defeated the White Sox 4-1 before an announced crowd of 11,020 at Rate Field.

The turnout also included 517 dogs who didn’t know they were watching two last-place teams. The White Sox have the worst record in the American League at 57-94. The Orioles improved to 70-80 after the Blue Jays swept them over the weekend.

Their 70^th win last year came on Aug. 10.

Manager Will Venable brought in left-hander Tyler Alexander with two outs in the sixth after Steven Wilson walked Coby Mayo. Samuel Basallo singled, Cowser homered to left-center field and Jackson Holliday doubled – all of them left-handed hitters making a mockery of the matchups.

“You’re trying to run that game right there to win the game, but you’re also trying to make sure our young left-handed hitters take the at-bats and have some success, just because in the past that’s been kind of the Achilles Heel for us," Mansolino said. "So to see Basallo right there, young kid, 21 years old, left-on-left hit a ball hard through the middle, get a knock. And Cowser, who’s been struggling, to have a big at-bat there, hit a three-run homer opposite field a day after he hit an opposite-field home run yesterday in Toronto. And then to kind of cap it off, you see Holliday, another 21 year old, pull a double down the line right there. It was really nice to see.”

Cowser was down 1-2 when he belted his 15^th homer, his second in two days and third in 10 games.

"I was trying to compete," he said. "Definitely wasn’t trying to do that. Was just trying to get something over the plate and hit it through the middle of the field. I think the big thing was just continue to see pitches and spoil the ones that I was not able to get to, but was able to put a good swing on a good pitch.

"I would say this year’s been a pretty adverse year for me and the team, as well. You know just starting out, going on the IL for two months, coming back, working through some injuries, some swing stuff, continuing the play through it. It’s been pretty tough to find a rhythm, I would say, but you know, messing around and you know feels like I’m either striking out or hitting a home run right now. I sure as heck would like to stop striking out, but I think this last week or so has been better, seeing a lot of pitches. I feel like I saw six to eight pitches an at-bat tonight. But I think it’s some of those things, right now it’s the early swings in counts, some foul balls on pitches I should be hitting."  

Bradish’s no-hit bid on May 26, 2024 ended when Danny Mendick came off the bench and smacked a leadoff home run against Coulombe, who said afterward that he felt “sick” about it. The Orioles won 4-1 to complete a four-game sweep.

The right elbow had three more starts in it before Bradish's reconstructive surgery.

“Well, I remember that, unfortunately,” Mansolino said.

Tonight was Bradish’s fourth start since his return and he held Chicago to one run and four hits in five innings. He walked four and struck out nine to elevate his pitch count to 88.

“First of all, we won, so I'm happy about that," he said. "It was kind of frustrating just coming out the gates good, having to walk four guys, kind of lost command through that third inning. But overall kept the team in it, limited damage and we won. So it was good.”

Colson Montgomery singled at 111.2 mph with two outs in the first and Curtis Mead singled to score Mike Tacuhman. The leadoff walk would burn Bradish.

Two more walks were issued in the third, when Bradish struck out three batters. Andrew Benintendi drew a leadoff walk in the fourth and the Orioles turned a 4-6-3 double play. Dominic Fletcher was stranded after a leadoff double in the fifth. Bradish struck out Lenyn Sosa for the third time.

“He was good," Mansolino said. "He threw kind of a lot of pitches. I felt like in the first inning there were a couple pitches that might have been punchouts that didn’t really go his way, that kind of made the pitch count go up a little bit. But for some reason, it was strange, the first batter of each inning gave him fits tonight, couldn’t get the ball over the plate. It probably became a mental thing would be my guess for the night. It happens. But the stuff was sharp. He was good. Just sprayed the ball just a little bit, more so than he did in his outing against Pittsburgh.”

Bradish induced 17 swings-and-misses, one short of his career high over five innings in a 2023 start against the Astros.

“Well, that’s Kyle Bradish," Mansolino said. "That’s just kind of what he does. We know we’re getting that when he goes out there, and as he gets more starts under his belt, he’ll command the ball a little bit better and be ahead in the count a little bit more and put guys away a little bit quicker, and that pitch count will stay a little bit lower.”

“I think the fastball was playing up really good today," Bradish said. "I think early on, threw some breaking balls down in the zone that they laid off or put a good swing on. So, kind of went to the fastball up and was able to get above the bat.”

Bradish wasn't having flashbacks to last year's start.

“Not really," he said. "I think that was last year. This is this year. Different pitcher this year, but it's nice to know that you have good outcomes in a ballpark.”

White Sox opener Tyler Gilbert retired the side in order on only 10 pitches in the first inning. Sean Burke had a 1-2-3 second inning, but he walked Basallo and Holliday in the third and Jeremiah Jackson singled with two outs to score the tying run.

Ryan Mountcastle singled in the fourth and Burke hit Mayo on the left hand with a 95.4 mph sinker with two outs, but Basallo grounded out. Mayo was in pain and assistant athletic trainer Patrick Wesley checked on him, but he stayed in the game.

Jackson and Gunnar Henderson walked with two outs in the fifth and Tyler O’Neill grounded into a force.

Burke allowed one run and two hits in four innings.

The Orioles bullpen was better. The same one that deteriorated in Toronto.

Kade Strowd retired his three batters in the sixth and Dietrich Enns retired his six to carry the lead to the ninth. No one was warming. This was Enns’ game to finish and he retired the side in order again for his second save.

Twelve up and 12 down to restore order to the unit.

“What a neat story," Mansolino said of Enns, acquired from the Tigers on July 31 for cash considerations. "Kind of where he was before, and then going overseas, and then coming back to Detroit, coming over in the trade. Remembering the trade deadline day. It was a lot that day, losing so many of our guys, and then we got the call that we got Dietrich Enns, and I probably didn’t really get that excited at the time, but boy am I excited right now.

"He’s really good, and I think he’s definitely kind of forcing his way onto this thing going forward. He’s been tough.”