Sean Burke stifles Padres, lifts White Sox to fifth straight win

Sean Burke tossed six scoreless innings Saturday night and the visiting Chicago White Sox stretched their winning streak to five with a 4-0 blanking of the San Diego Padres.

Burke (2-2) allowed only four hits and a walk while fanning eight, including Xander Bogaerts three times. Three relievers finished up, with Seranthony Dominguez getting the last two outs for his eighth save in 10 chances, as Chicago wrapped up its first series win over San Diego since 2022.

The Padres filled the bases with no outs in the ninth when Jackson Merrill beat out an infield single followed by walks to Manny Machado and Bogaerts. Grant Taylor slipped a called third strike past Gavin Sheets before Dominguez came in to retire Miguel Andujar on a shallow fly ball and strike out Luis Campusano.

Michael King (3-2) yielded seven hits and four runs over six-plus innings. King walked three and struck out five as the Padres dropped their fourth straight game.

Burke and King matched each other pitch-for-pitch through the first five innings. But the White Sox struck in the sixth when Tristan Peters drew a one-out walk and Andrew Benintendi legged out an infield single.

After Munetaka Murakami moved the runners up 90 feet with a groundout, Miguel Vargas looped a liner into short right field, scoring Peters and Benintendi for the only runs Chicago needed.

But the White Sox added on with two more runs in the seventh. Chase Meidroth singled and reached third on Sam Antonacci's double, then scored on Edgar Quero's single that knocked out King. Peters then capped the scoring with a safety squeeze bunt that plated Antonacci.

The Padres' best scoring chances against Burke came in the second and fifth innings. Sheets walked and Andujar singled with one out in the second. But Burke stiffened, fanning Campusano and inducing a groundout from Jake Cronenworth.

In the fifth, Andujar led off with a single and Cronenworth singled with one out. However, Ramon Laureano flew out and Burke blew away Fernando Tatis Jr. on three pitches to quash the threat.

The Padres were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight runners.

--Field Level Media