Holliday and Mateo homer as Orioles defeat White Sox 4-2 to clinch series win

BALTIMORE — Jackson Holliday hit his first career leadoff home run, Jorge Mateo slugged his first homer of the season and the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox 4-2 on Saturday.

Dean Kremer (5-5) allowed one run in six innings to win his second consecutive start for Baltimore, which has won five of seven for the first time this season. The Orioles clinched their third home series victory of the season and their first since taking two of three from the New York Yankees on April 28-30.

Félix Bautista earned his 10th save in 11 tries with a scoreless ninth.

The White Sox (18-40) fell to 6-25 on the road and are a season-high 22 games under .500.

After yielding Holliday's home run in the first, Chicago starter Davis Martin (2-6) didn't allow a hit until Ryan O'Hearn's one-double in the fourth. O'Hearn came around two batters later on Coby Mayo's RBI single — his first in the majors. And it cleared both benches.

Mayo, who was called up earlier Saturday, rounded first base and got caught in a rundown. Second baseman Lenyn Sosa tossed to first baseman Miguel Vargas and Mayo collided with Sosa — appearing to try to draw an interference call — and fell as he was heading to second. Vargas tagged Mayo out, but Sosa took exception to Mayo's shove.

The two were talking when Mayo picked up his helmet from the ground and then pushed Sosa in the left shoulder as he was walking away. That sent players from both teams onto the field, where there was a little pushing and shoving before order was quickly restored without incident.

In the fifth, Mateo followed Dylan Carlson's one-out double by lofting a fly over the fence in center for his first homer since last June 21.

Andrew Benintendi hit an RBI single in the fifth off Kremer and Mike Tauchman drove in the White Sox's other run with a single off Yennier Cano in the seventh.

Kremer allowed six hits and struck out seven. He improved to 2-0 with a 1.02 ERA in three career starts against the White Sox.

Martin gave up four runs in six innings. He struck out six.

Key moment

Bautista struck out Luis Robert Jr. and Austin Slater to escape a two-on, one-out jam in the ninth.

Key stat

Bautista earned saves on consecutive days for the first time since July 22-23, 2023. The right-hander missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in October 2023.

Up next

Chicago RHP Adrian Houser (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who has thrown 12 scoreless innings since signing with the White Sox on May 20, starts the series finale against Baltimore RHP Charlie Morton (1-7, 7.09).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb