BALTIMORE — Rookie left-hander Noah Schultz took a no-hitter into the fifth inning Wednesday in his return from the injured list, but the White Sox’ bats and bullpen wilted on a brutally hot day at Camden Yards.
With a 6-1 loss, the Sox missed out on a sweep of the Orioles before moving on to Cleveland for the most consequential series they have played since they last had any legitimate hopes of contention in 2022. A victory by the Guardians shrunk the Sox’ lead in the American League Central to a game.
‘‘Bummed about today, but we’ll regroup and be ready for a big series against them,’’ manager Will Venable said.
Sam Antonacci swatted a 388-foot home run on the second pitch of the game against Orioles starter Dean Kremer, but Kremer didn’t allow another baserunner until Braden Montgomery doubled with two outs in the fourth.
Montgomery fell a couple of feet shy of his third homer, and the Sox mustered only two other hits on an afternoon with oppressive humidity that made it feel like more than 100 degrees.
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Schultz, who was making his first start in more than a month after a bout of patellar tendinitis in his right knee, walked the first batter he faced but bounced back with two strikeouts to leave the first inning unscathed.
Schultz, who played at Oswego East, sailed until the fifth, which Tyler O’Neill led off with a solo homer. After Schultz yielded his fourth walk and a single, Venable pulled him after 4⅓ innings with seven strikeouts.
The Orioles then loaded the bases against reliever Bryan Hudson, who yielded an RBI single and a sacrifice fly. The inning spiraled further for reliever Trevor Richards, whose wild pitch let in the Orioles’ fourth run, three of them charged to Schultz.
‘‘Kind of been the story of the season so far for me,’’ Schultz said. ‘‘Basically, everybody I walk scores, so I’ve just got to clean that up.’’
Blaze Alexander tagged Richards for an RBI triple in the sixth, and Leody Taveras added a solo homer against reliever Brandon Eisert in the eighth to close the scoring.
The Sox, however, already had locked up their first victory in a road series since early May to follow up a torrid stretch at home that featured some surprising success against some of the top teams in baseball, including the Braves and Dodgers. Without injured Munetaka Murakami in the lineup, they emerged with a 13-12 record in June. That gave them consecutive winning months for the first time in five years.
Now they head to Cleveland to tussle with the Guardians for control of the division, a notion that would’ve felt far-fetched a couple of months ago.
‘‘If people are doubting us or thinking this is a fluke, I think all of that should be out of the window since we’re in July now,’’ shortstop Colson Montgomery said, amplifying the confidence the Sox’ young clubhouse has exuded all season.
The Sox have done it by slugging the second-most homers in the majors (118) and by grinding out a full-throttle brand of baseball that fans missed out on during the triple-
digit-loss seasons of 2023-25.
‘‘That’s kind of the mentality of our team,’’ right-hander Sean Burke said. ‘‘You see guys like Antonacci getting hit by pitches, [center fielder Tristan] Peters is running into the wall, [third baseman Miguel] Vargas is diving into the netting and the tarp over there. Guys are playing hard, and everybody wants to do everything they can to make the play.’’
Venable said he’s ‘‘not going to get caught up in where we’re at in the standings’’ before the All-Star break, but his players are loving every second.
‘‘It’s exactly where we want to be,’’ right-hander Erick Fedde said. ‘‘Everybody here believes that we can win a division. Everyone believes that this isn’t something that’s going to go away, and we have a lot of fun ballgames coming up.’’
On deck
SOX AT GUARDIANS
Thursday: Davis Martin (9-3, 3.00 ERA) vs. Slade Cecconi (4-6, 4.18), 5:40 p.m., CHSN, 1000-AM.
Friday: Anthony Kay (6-3, 4.50) vs. Gavin Williams (9-4, 3.81), 6:10 p.m., CHSN, 1000-AM.
Saturday: Sean Burke (5-4, 3.69) vs. Parker Messick (7-5, 2.85), 6:10 p.m., CHSN, 1000-AM.
Sunday: Erick Fedde (3-6, 4.41) vs. Tanner Bibee (2-9, 3.69), 1 p.m., Peacock/NBCSN Extra, 1000-AM.