White Sox’ winning streak at season-high 5 games

Better late than never, but the White Sox officially are a hot team.

Actually, the timing is pretty good.

Why waste a good stretch of baseball early in the year? This is the stage of the season when an extended surge can put a team right back in the race, and it looks like the Sox are going down that road.

The White Sox won their fifth game in a row Tuesday night, which is a season high.

Once again the Sox jumped out to a 4-0 lead against the last-place Baltimore Orioles and had to battle for the victory.

The White Sox wound up rallying from a 6-5 deficit to win 7-6 in the series opener, and they followed up with a 4-3 decision Tuesday.

“We’ve kind of just been waiting for this all year, really,” Brent Morel told reporters after the Sox (57-58) made their latest approach at the .500 mark.

“We have a lot of potential. It’s kind of been a disappointing year, but knowing that we have a little time left to make a push, hopefully we can keep playing well.”

The White Sox’ offense finally has opened up during the winning streak, and Morel and the red-hot Carlos Quentin each hit solo home runs off Baltimore starter Jo-Jo Reyes.

Morel also had an RBI single, and an 11-for-33 run has lifted his batting average from .248 to .259.

Maybe the third baseman’s offensive game finally is starting to catch up with his defense.

“Defense comes up huge because without defense you’re not going to win that many games,” manager Ozzie Guillen told reporters. “You’re going to help the pitching staff.

“But the way we’re hitting all year long, I think our offense is very important. I think our offense was kind of quiet, but lately we got a couple key hits, and Morel came up with big ones.”

Pitching has been the biggest key for the Sox as they chase the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.

Gavin Floyd, overcoming a nightmarish game against the New York Yankees in his last outing, picked up the win by allowing 3 runs on 7 hits in 6⅔ innings.

During the five-game streak, White Sox starters have a 2.04 ERA. During the six-game losing streak that preceded this surge, Sox starters had a 7.52 ERA.

And don’t forget about the bullpen.

Will Ohman, Jason Frasor, Chris Sale and Sergio Santos did not allow a hit over the final 2⅓ innings in relief of Floyd, and Santos extended his road scoreless streak to 29 games after retiring the only hitter, Robert Andino, he faced.

“We knew from the beginning we have a good bullpen, and I feel we have a good starting staff and good lineup also,” Floyd told reporters. “Hopefully we can just come together and go on a little run here.”

sgregor@dailyherald.com