The Chicago White Sox arrived at Camden Yards on Friday as unlikely equals with the Orioles. This is not how the arrangement should have been — ahead of the 2025 season, one was expected to struggle again while the other was supposed to be a contender.

Well, both clubs sat in the basement of their divisions Friday. The severely underperforming Orioles and performing-as-expected White Sox were twins in many ways, with nearly identical records and rapidly dwindling hopes that 2025 can amount to anything worthwhile.

The difference when Chicago and Baltimore took the field, though, was apparent at the individual level. The performance from right-hander Zach Eflin helped show that, at the very least, the Orioles can dominate in one facet during a battle between two of the worst teams in Major League Baseball.

Baltimore is in this mess, however, because of its inability to couple a strong performance from one facet with another. Even with Friday’s 2-1 victory (raising the Orioles to 20-36, which is still a 58-win pace), the lack of complementary baseball made this a close-run affair and put pressure on Eflin.

He was just about perfect. He cruised through five innings and dodged danger in the sixth. And, when the Orioles scratched across two runs in the bottom half of the sixth, Eflin buckled down to post a seven-inning gem.

“Ef was locked in, and that’s the Zach Eflin that I’m used to seeing out there,” Ryan O’Hearn said. “Just really efficient, doesn’t walk guys, a lot of 3-2 counts in big situations and he made big pitches. That was awesome. Huge for us.”

The breakthrough came in part because Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson combined to produce positive results in the sixth. During their last game they finished a combined 0-for-10, and Rutschman, in particular, has struggled despite remaining near the top of the batting order. He entered Friday with a .206 average.

He led off against Chicago right-hander Sean Burke with a hard-hit single, and Henderson’s opposite-field double against an up-the-middle infield shift put runners in scoring position with no outs.

The offensive inefficiencies remained. O’Hearn, Baltimore’s hottest hitter, grounded into a fielder’s choice out at the plate once the bases were loaded. But Ramón Urías’ sacrifice fly led to the largest roar of the day from a crowd that dealt with a late schedule change to attend the unexpected afternoon start.

And, with two outs, O’Hearn took off for second and stopped halfway, drawing a throw to the base. Ryan Mountcastle, at third, took off for the plate. He slid in safely before the return throw home from second.

It was a move most frequently seen in Little League baseball, but it worked. And, with the way the Orioles are hitting with runners in scoring position, any tactics to get a much-needed run home were prudent.

“We try to pick our spots and be smart as you can to watch the game unfold and realize that sometimes you’ve got to take some smart risks, I guess, is probably the best way to put it,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “We had an idea of what they would do. We took a shot. It worked out.”

Added Eflin: “It’s something you kind of learn in high school, right? As soon as the catcher lets it go and you see it up in the air, you break for home, and whatever happens happens, right?”

But it came at a cost. Mountcastle left with right hamstring discomfort after swiping home.

Mansolino said trainer Patrick Wesley told him Mountcastle’s hamstring felt tight. They made the “commonsense” decision to remove Mountcastle. He’ll be evaluated Saturday.

Meanwhile, infield prospect Coby Mayo is traveling to Baltimore, two sources said, although whether that leads to a call-up remains to be seen.

The second run was vital. The White Sox (18-39) scored one in the ninth inning against right-hander Félix Bautista through a pair of doubles from Mike Tauchman and Andrew Benintendi.

“That’s how you draw it up, I guess,” O’Hearn said. “It was good, get us that extra run, which ended up winning the game for us there. So, huge.”

Meanwhile, the double from Henderson marked the 400th hit of his major league career. The milestone places him in elite Orioles company. The only other batters to reach 400 hits for Baltimore before turning 24 are Manny Machado, Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, Boog Powell and Brooks Robinson.

They created just enough offense in the sixth to give Eflin something to hold on to, and he was under pressure to do so in the seventh. Eflin allowed a one-out single and a walk, but he struck out the next two batters, including Joshua Palacios on a borderline 3-2 cutter, to finish his day.

“I felt I threw it [the cutter] a lot more today with conviction than I did the last couple times I’ve thrown it,” Eflin said. “More so I think, the last couple outings, tried to place it where I wanted it to be as opposed to throw it through where I wanted to be. So I think just more so conviction today than anything.”

This looked more like the Eflin Baltimore has grown accustomed to seeing. In his previous two starts, Eflin had allowed 15 combined hits and 12 earned runs.

That was a departure from the strong end of his 2024 season, when Eflin posted a 2.60 ERA after arriving in a trade from the Tampa Bay Rays. This season has been rockier. He needed a stint on the injured list due to a lat strain in April, and he has struggled to find his feel in the immediate return from it.

Facing the White Sox certainly helped. He completed seven innings for the first time this season, and by doing so he ensured the Orioles would triumph over their unexpectedly fellow bottom-tier competition.

This article has been updated.