Hays is 7-for-32 (.219) with one double, one home run, six RBIs and two runs in nine games after signing a one-year deal<\/a> with the Sox in the offseason. He played for the Orioles from 2017-24, earning All-Star honors in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a guy who\u2019s been a performer in this league,\u201d Venable said. \u201cHe understands the nuance of being a major-league player, both on and off the field. What it means to prepare. What it means to go out there and compete. He\u2019s a guy that our younger players look to as a veteran, in the clubhouse and on the field.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tough one for the group, a tough one for (Hays). Put so much work into this. It\u2019s a real bummer.\u201d<\/p>\n Hays had one of the team\u2019s four hits on Monday, collecting a single in the second inning. Chase Meidroth had two singles and Andrew Benintendi had an infield hit in the loss. Orioles starter Brandon Young allowed two hits, struck out two and walked two in five scoreless innings.<\/p>\n Sox pitcher Erick Fedde allowed two runs on five hits with four strikeouts and one walk in six innings.<\/p>\n \u201cTo start the year, I\u2019ve felt great with my stuff,\u201d Fedde said. \u201cI really feel like I have four pitches that I\u2019ve been commanding. Not much to complain about. Obviously, don\u2019t want to give up runs, but overall happy with my stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cI think (the sweeper has) been my best pitch throughout spring and into the season. It\u2019s getting me a lot of outs when I need it, and it\u2019s been something I\u2019ve been leaning on, so I\u2019m very happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Fedde followed a scoreless first inning from opener Grant Taylor \u2014 who became the fifth MLB pitcher since at least 1924 to start three times in four days, joining Wilbur Wood for the Sox (July 17-20, 1973), Herman Fink of the Philadelphia Athletics (Sept. 22-25, 1935) and Dick Coffman of the St. Louis Browns (June 30-July 3, 1933). Taylor pitched perfect first innings Friday<\/a> and Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been fun,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed the preparation for it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Orioles scored Monday\u2019s first run on the single by O\u2019Neill in the fourth, with Adley Rutschman racing from first to home. Gunnar Henderson hit a solo home run in the sixth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great day on that (pitching) side,\u201d Venable said. \u201cStarting with Grant, again, did a really nice job getting through the top of the order. And then Fedde was outstanding. Continued to throw strikes, was in total control.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first hit there where they scored, a fly ball, the one that got (Hays) hurt. Probably if he\u2019s not hurt, that ball is caught. Just the solo homer from Gunnar. So just a really nice job throughout the day from all those guys. (Reliever Lucas) Sims came in and did a great job (two strikeouts in two scoreless innings) as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sox went to the ninth trailing 2-0. Munetaka Murakami and Miguel Vargas began the inning with back-to-back walks. Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso made a diving stop on a hard-hit grounder by Colson Montgomery for the first out, with both runners advancing a base.<\/p>\n Murakami scored when pinch-hitter Lenyn Sosa grounded out to Henderson at shortstop. Benintendi followed with the infield hit to third, giving the Sox runners on the corners with two outs. Orioles reliever Ryan Helsley struck out Edgar Quero to end the game as the Sox (4-6) dropped the series opener.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was nice to see the guys continue to battle, just couldn\u2019t get anything going really,\u201d Venable said. \u201cA few hits sprinkled throughout the first eight innings there. We had some pitches to hit, just some soft contact on the ground. Just weren\u2019t able to get anything going.<\/p>\n \u201cBut these guys continued to battle (and) had a chance to have the tying run in scoring position against a really good closer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Hays ran toward the left-field line, attempting to track down Tyler O\u2019Neill\u2019s high fly ball in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[124,143,47,2538,5,1395,49,10857,11613,2540,4,256,125,998],"class_list":{"0":"post-667774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-austin-hays","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-brooks-baldwin","14":"tag-chicago-white-sox","15":"tag-everson-pereira","16":"tag-grant-taylor","17":"tag-injured-list","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-mlb-baseball","20":"tag-orioles","21":"tag-will-venable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116361856164083610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ctc-z-Orioles-White-Sox-Baseball_261353914.jpg\")
Chicago White Sox pitcher Grant Taylor throws against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, April 6, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo\/Erin Hooley)<\/p>\n