CINCINNATI — Something might have clicked for Colson Montgomery in the desert.

At least that’s what the White Sox are hoping for their prized shortstop prospect, who returned to Triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday after spending two weeks at the team’s training facility in Arizona to work on his ice-cold swing.

Montgomery’s bat showed signs of thawing from his woeful start to the season, as he went 2-for-5 with two singles, an RBI and a strikeout in the Knights’ 8-5 victory against the Gwinnett Stripers.

‘‘He went down there with a great mentality; he really, really got after it,’’ Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield said of Montgomery’s detour to Arizona, a situation he acknowledged was ‘‘delicate.’’

‘‘I think knowing that the goal was to put him on a fast trajectory to get back to where we all know he could be — and eventually up here — I think he went into it with the right mindset, and he got a lot out of it.’’

Team brass yanked Montgomery, the Sox’ first-round draft pick in 2021, from the Charlotte roster April 29 after he stumbled to a miserable .149/.223/.255 slash line in the first 23 games of the season.

That followed his disappointing Triple-A showing last season and his failure to crack the big-league roster out of spring training this season. Meanwhile, Montgomery has slid from No. 4 to No. 6 in the Sox’ MLB Pipeline prospect rankings and from No. 34 in MLB out of the top 100 altogether.

His numbers hardly looked any better in five games in the Arizona Complex League in the last two weeks. He went 3-for-17 with two RBI, two walks and four strikeouts.

‘‘[But] we weren’t really chasing results in the games down there,’’ Barfield said. ‘‘It was more getting him in a good spot, a good feel. And by the time he left there, he felt like he was in a much better spot than when he had left [Charlotte]. More importantly, he just looked more like himself today. So hopefully he can continue to build off of that.’’

Barfield highlighted ‘‘some mechanical things and cues that he’s working on. Some of the stuff with his lower half, just being a little cleaner, a little bit more square.’’

Montgomery looked comfortable for the Knights in a game that offered a kaleidoscope of the Sox’ most recent contending past and their rebuilding present.

His second hit came against former Sox reliever Craig Kimbrel, who is trying to claw his way back to the majors in the Braves’ organization along with former Sox catcher James McCann, who served as the Stripers’ designated hitter.

Another Montgomery gets hot

The arrow has been pointing in the other direction for minor-league outfielder Braden Montgomery, who was named the South Atlantic League player of the week Sunday, just two weeks after making the jump from Single-A Kannapolis to High-A Winston-Salem.

His 10-for-21 tear included two doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI.

‘‘He’s crazy-talented,’’ Barfield said. ‘‘We probably could have sent him to Winston to start out the year, but we wanted to make sure he got his feet underneath him. . . . He’s gone up to Winston, and he’s hitting even better.’’

Robert, Vargas return

Rain delayed the start of the Sox-Reds game, but center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and infielder Miguel Vargas were back in the lineup after missing two games with knee and calf soreness, respectively.