Eflin goes seven scoreless innings and Orioles beat White Sox 2-1

BALTIMORE — Zach Eflin allowed 4 hits over 7 shutout innings and the Baltimore Orioles beat the 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 6 innings after opener Jared Shuster worked an inning plus a batter as the White Sox fell to 6-24 on the road.

Key moment

Chicago's Miguel Vargas singled and Benintendi walked to put two on with 1 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 6 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 5 combined runs in his last 3 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.

___

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