Orioles draw largest crowd of season at Camden Yards for 8-3 loss to White Sox

BALTIMORE — One day, perhaps soon but also maybe not, Camden Yards being over half-full will be the floor and not the ceiling.

That will require games like Saturday’s, an 8-3 Orioles loss to the Chicago White Sox before a season-high 26,391 fans at Camden Yards, to become far less frequent.

The Orioles lost for the sixth time in seven games to fall to 28-60, putting them on pace for 110 losses in the penultimate game before the All-Star break.

This one got away quickly as right-hander Thomas Eshelman allowed a home run in the second inning to Brian Goodwin, then didn’t record an out in a three-run third inning.

Chicago’s advantage only grew from there as it scored twice off left-hander Keegan Akin in the fifth inning and twice more in the seventh.

Lucas Giolito, who struck out nine Orioles batters while pitching into the sixth, and the White Sox bullpen combined to ensure that lead was plenty big.

The Orioles had stranded six by the time the eighth inning rolled around and they loaded the bases, but got just one run on a walk by Austin Hays before pinch-hitter Ryan McKenna struck out against All-Star closer Liam Hendricks to end the threat.

Except for that pinch-hit walk by Hays, the Orioles got both of their runs on short-field singles by second baseman Domingo Leyba.

Leyba hit a two-out single in the fourth inning to score Ryan Mountcastle and a two-out single in the sixth to bring home Anthony Santander.

The waiver claim from the Arizona Diamondbacks has multi-hit games in back-to-back starts.

The only Orioles batter with more than one hit was Ramón Urías, whose two-hit game gave him five multi-hit games in his past six. He’s batting (15 for 41) with two doubles and three walks since taking over June 27 as the everyday shortstop for Freddy Galvis, who’s out with a quadriceps injury.

Only getting two innings from Eshelman will have been a scary proposition for manager Brandon Hyde, but Akin’s four innings of relief with seven strikeouts and four runs allowed meant it was just Akin and Adam Plutko, who didn’t allow a run on his own account in three innings.