BALTIMORE (AP) — Zach Eflin allowed four hits over seven shutout innings and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 2-1 on Friday.
Eflin (4-2) struck out six and walked one in his first scoreless outing this season while lowering his ERA nearly a run to 4.46.
Ramón Urías broke a scoreless tie with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly off Sean Burke (3-6). Ryan Mountcastle then swiped home on a double steal, then left before the eighth inning with right hamstring discomfort.
Bryan Baker worked a perfect eighth in a game originally scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m. that was moved up to 4:30 p.m. because of expected inclement weather in the area, before Felix Bautista gave up Andrew Benintendi’s RBI double in the ninth then stranded two for his ninth save.
Burke worked six innings after opener Jared Shuster worked an inning plus a batter as the White Sox fell to .200 (6-24) on the road.
Key moment
Chicago's Miguel Vargas singled and Benintendi walked to put two on with one out in the seventh. Eflin escaped by striking out Luis Robert Jr. swinging and Joshua Palacios Jr. looking, the latter on a 3-2 cutter that home plate umpire D.J. Rayburn said caught the outer corner of the zone.
Key stat
Eflin got within six batters of completing his fourth career shutout and his first since 2020. His last nine-inning shutout helped Philadelphia win 7-0 win at Kansas City on May 11, 2019.
Up next
Chicago right-hander Davis Martin (2-5, 3.45 ERA) will try to extend his streak of quality starts to four on Saturday after yielding only five combined runs in his last three outings (20 IP). He faces Orioles right-hander Dean Kremer (4-5-, 5.02), who is looking for consecutive wins after pitching 5 1/3 scoreless frames in a 5-1 victory at Boston last Sunday.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Ian Nicholas Quillen, The Associated Press