Baltimore Orioles vs Chicago White Sox Picks and Predictions July 1st 2026

Noah Schultz returns as White Sox gun for sweep of Orioles

The Chicago White Sox finally have solved the Baltimore Orioles, and now they will shoot for a three-game series sweep.

The teams meet for the final time in the 2026 regular season Wednesday afternoon in Baltimore.

By winning 9-3 on Tuesday night, the White Sox clinched their first series victory against the Orioles since July 2021.

The White Sox have won six of their past eight games overall.

The Orioles are scuffling, falling a season-worst nine games below .500 thanks to a four-game losing streak.

“When you play every day and you’re not playing your best baseball, it seems like a daunting task,” Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz said. “And that’s why you have to take each day at a time and attack each day, go out there, compete, be prepared, because when you look up, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

A couple of pitchers coming off the injured list likely are to be on the mound as starters on Wednesday.

The White Sox will have rookie left-hander Noah Schultz (2-4, 5.82 ERA) back in action. He threw 74 pitches Friday in a rehab appearance for Triple-A Charlotte while recovering from a right knee injury. In three outings for Charlotte, he went 0-1 with a 4.00 ERA.

Chicago manager Will Venable has liked the reports he received on Schultz, who hasn’t been on a big-league mound since a May 24 loss at San Francisco.

“Obviously, he’s continuing to find ways to be effective in the zone, to get in the zone and attack hitters,” Venable said. “He’s definitely progressing well.”

Schultz has lost his last three major league decisions. He had a series of rough stints, giving up 19 runs in 17 1/3 innings across his last four outings. He has never faced Baltimore.

Right-hander Dean Kremer (0-1, 4.09 ERA) could be reinstated from the injury list to make the start for the Orioles. He has been sidelined since mid-April because of a right quadriceps strain.

Kremer made two rehab starts with Triple-A Norfolk, recording no decisions and a 0.87 ERA. He tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings on Friday against Durham, permitting two hits and a walk while striking out eight.

“He threw extremely well,” Albernaz said. “Yeah, efficient, throwing a ton of strikes. … I love how he’s been throwing it during these rehab outings.”

Kremer is 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four career starts against the White Sox.

Baltimore has dropped six of its last seven games overall while averaging just 3.1 runs per contest.

“We’ve got to play better,” first baseman Pete Alonso said. “We’ve got to take accountability as a group and this is 100% on us as players. We’ve just got to do a better job.”

There have been indications that the Orioles are committed to making necessary moves in the coming weeks in advance of the trade deadline in hopes of climbing into the race for playoff position. However, they’ve got to get on-field results to back up that quest.

“The easiest thing to do is to throw in a towel and concede, and that’s something that our guys don’t have in that clubhouse,” Albernaz said. “They’re fighting, competing every single day, and we just need to string together some good innings of baseball. We’ve shown that we can do it, and now it’s actually going out there and doing it consistently.”

–Field Level Media