CHICAGO (AP) — Jorge Mateo homered and doubled to lead the Orioles over the Chicago White Sox 6-2 on Saturday, giving Baltimore its first four-game winning streak this season.
Lance Lynn (1-1) retired eight straight batters before Mateo lifted a solo homer just over the left-center fence to put Baltimore ahead in the third.
Baltimore coughed up its advantage on two errors in the bottom of the inning, but Mateo struck back by belting his 10th double off the left field wall. He scored to make it 2-1 on the next at-bat, when Leury García erred on Cedric Mullins’ infield grounder.
Spenser Watkins (1-1) gave up five hits and no earned runs to get his third win in 19 career starts. He fanned four and walked one in five innings.
“Love the way he kept guys off balance, love the way he threw a bunch of strikes,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “The cutter was good, threw some good curveballs and mixed (pitches) extremely well.”
Watkins was feeling good physically after coming right up on his pitch limit, recording 49 strikes on 78 pitches.
“Very pleased to be able to give the team a chance to win, especially with the momentum they’ve already carried into this series and so far in the series,” Watkins said.
Chicago scored after rookie Lenyn Sosa reached on Tyler Nevin’s throwing error, then Luis Robert singled to center, scoring Sosa on a throwing error by Mateo.
Mateo snagged a line drive to deny Sosa his first big-league hit in the fifth.
Bryan Baker, Nick Vespi and Dillon Tate combined to allow one hit and a run in four innings.
“It’s really fun kind of getting on this little roll,” Baker said. “Hopefully we can continue this throughout the road trip and keep the momentum rolling.”
EYEING .500
Baltimore (34-39) has won…