Brooks Baldwin lined a game-ending RBI single and Luis Robert Jr. smacked a two-run home run to lift the host Chicago White Sox to a 3-2 victory against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Chicago clinched its first series victory of the season while also winning consecutive games for the first time.
Robert Jr. worked a walk against Aroldis Chapman (2-1) leading off the ninth inning. Robert stole second base after a strikeout to Andrew Vaughn to set the stage for Baldwin.
Boston has lost five of six.
Tyler Gilbert (1-0) picked up the victory in relief, retiring the last batter of the Boston ninth.
Boston broke through for a pair of runs in the fifth. Ceddanne Rafaela followed Carlos Narvaez’s leadoff single by smacking an RBI triple to the gap in left center, his first extra-base hit this season.
Rafaela scored one batter later on a Romy Gonzalez RBI single.
White Sox left-hander Martin Perez yielded two runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings with four walks and five strikeouts.
Entering Saturday, Perez had allowed one run and walked five in two starts covering 12 1/3 innings.
Boston rookie right-hander Matt Fitts retired the first four White Sox he faced before a walk to Joshua Palacios and a Chase Meidroth single put two runners aboard with one out in the second. Fitts escaped damage with a strikeout and flyout that started a stretch of setting down 10 straight Chicago batters.
Fitts spaced two hits, one walk and five strikeouts in five-plus scoreless innings.
Fitts’ afternoon ended abruptly as he exited with what the club called “right shoulder pain” in the top of the sixth. He was under noticeable discomfort after delivering a pitch to Chicago’s Miguel Vargas.
Manager Alex Cora and a Red Sox trainer came to the mound to remove Fitts from the game. Reliever Zack Kelly walked Vargas and struck out Nick Maton looking before Robert drilled his first home run of the season, a tying two-run blast to right center.
Trevor Story and Rafaela had two hits apiece for the Red Sox.
–Field Level Media
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