BALTIMORE — Jacob Gonzalez laced an RBI double early and a two-run double late in the White Sox’ series-opening 8-2 win at Camden Yards on Monday.
Later, Tristan Peters made a dazzling catch while running full-steam into the center-field wall, and Sam Antonacci started an eighth-inning rally the way he has so many times in his gritty young career: taking a pitch off the arm for the 17th time this season before scoring the go-ahead run. He added a double, too.
They’re the kind of rookie contributions that manager Will Venable & Co. are coming to expect from their young, contending roster.
“It’s been really impressive,” Venable said. “When you see these young players come up and they perform well, it’s really because they are able to make adjustments, and that’s really what’s required to stay in this league and to perform at a high level.”
The O’s drew first blood on Adley Rutschman’s RBI single in the first against Sox starter Sean Burke, who played college ball nearby at the University of Maryland. Gonzalez knocked his double in the third and scored on Kyle Teel’s infield single.
Jacob Gonzalez LACES a double to tie this game at 1 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VLhc4ehw7f
— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) June 29, 2026
Burke got into another jam in the bottom half of the inning that culminated in a sacrifice fly from Rutschman to tie the game. Otherwise it was a third straight solid start for Burke, who touched 99 mph on the radar gun while surrendering two runs on four hits and three walks over 5⅓ innings with eight strikeouts.
Peters made his incredible running catch in the fourth to rob Dylan Beavers of extra bases, but Baltimore’s Colton Cowser returned the favor the next inning, leaping at the center field wall to rob Miguel Vargas of a home run.
Tristan Peters holds on for a spectacular running catch! pic.twitter.com/FbCiLSOAvj
— MLB (@MLB) June 29, 2026
Antonacci got plunked in the eighth and came home on a double from Colson Montgomery, who then scored on a Randal Grichuk single. The Sox knocked around reliever Yennier Cano for the rest.
Sweating it out
The Sox arrived in Baltimore just in time for a brutal heat wave, with first pitch Monday coming in at a sweltering 86 degrees. Tuesday night’s game could top 90 and Wednesday afternoon could flirt with 100, all amid stifling humidity.
“We’ll hear our performance group yell ‘hydrate’ 50 times during the game today,” Venable said, noting the blast-furnace conditions were all the worse for wear during a stretch of the calendar with 19 games in 20 days.
“We’re going to share the load, and that means maybe resting guys that would normally be in there every day, and maybe playing guys in spots where they usually haven’t been,” he said.
Pitchers on the mend
Rookie starter Noah Schultz was back in the visitors clubhouse after a Triple-A rehab stint on his way back from a bout with knee tendinitis that has shelved him since Memorial Day. Venable acknowledged “it is very likely that we activate him to start on Wednesday.”
Meanwhile, demoted Opening Day starter Shane Smith is getting closer to a rehab assignment of his own after the biceps injury that sidelined him in early May.
“He threw a live bullpen a couple of days ago and he’s on track to kind of get it going in games here this following week,” Sox pitching coach Zach Bove said.
The same goes for the Sox’ next top pitching prospects, Tanner McDougal and Hagen Smith, who likely would have been with the big-league squad by now if not for their respective forearm and shoulder injuries.