TAMPA, Fla. –– A heat index of 98 degrees at first pitch kept the White Sox bats warm as they began a three-game series against the Rays on Monday at a sold-out George M. Steinbrenner Field.

In an 8-3 win, Brooks Baldwin opened the scoring with a three-run home run in the second, and Chase Meidroth led the way with the first-career four-hit game of his MLB career. Miguel Vargas and Luis Robert Jr. did their jobs in the middle of the order with two RBIs apiece. Seven White Sox recorded hits, the outliers being Mike Tauchman and Lenyn Sosa, who still have the highest batting averages among Monday’s starters.

“Really nice. That’s what it’s gonna take,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Tauch’s not gonna get three hits every night, and it’s gonna take an entire group to go out there and get the job done, and tonight was a great example of just one through nine, even if there’s a couple of them that didn’t have their best days, we were able to string together enough to score some runs.”

With this win, the White Sox secured their first four-game win streak since May 8-11, 2024, when they beat the Rays once and the Guardians three times. It’s also their first four-game road winning streak since Sept. 7-10, 2022, when they beat the Mariners once and the Athletics three times.

The White Sox have scored 35 runs during the current four-game win streak. Coincidentally, that’s their most runs in any four-game stretch since the aforementioned four-game win streak in September of 2022, when they scored 38 runs. With their record at 36-65, the White Sox are 29 games below .500 for the first time since July 5.

That’s made for their best offensive stretch of the season.

“I think it’s fair to say,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “I mean, I can’t remember any other stretch where we scored 35 runs in a four-game stretch or whatever we’ve done, so I would say absolutely.”

The White Sox traveled to Tampa after sweeping their first series of the season in Pittsburgh, featuring a plus-20 run differential, their fourth-best mark in a season series sweep in team history. Jonathan Cannon and Aaron Civale recorded quality starts, and the bullpen allowed just one run all weekend. But it was the lineup that really stood out, scoring 27 runs.

The offensive firepower continued Monday, sparked by back-to-back singles up the middle in the second inning from rookies Kyle Teel and Colson Montgomery. Known as an aggressive swinger, Baldwin ambushed a first-pitch fastball on the inner half and drove it to right field for a three-run home run off Rays starter Shane Baz.

“I knew the Rays philosophy is kind of getting ahead early with strike one,” Baldwin said. “So just being on the fastball first-pitch, looking middle, middle-in. And he threw it middle-in and just put a good swing on it.”

They didn’t waste any time adding to that lead. Meidroth led off the third with a line-drive single, and Baz would soon face a bases-loaded jam after walking Andrew Benintendi and Vargas. Robert extended his hit streak to eight games with a line-drive single to left field, where Christopher Morel couldn’t make a diving play, allowing two runs to score. Montgomery made it a 6-0 White Sox lead in the next at-bat, as he beat out a potential double play.

“Just hit something in the heart of the plate. I think that’s always the approach,” Meidroth said. “But I can’t say enough, one through nine. That’s a really good arm over there, and one through nine we had really good, quality at-bats the entire day. So that was awesome.”

Burke escaped trouble early on, allowing two base runners in the first two innings but no runs. The Rays put two men on again in the fourth, and this time Taylor Walls came through with a clutch hit. Tauchman appeared to have a shot at catching the fly ball in deep right, but he overran the ball, which hit the wall and was ruled a two-RBI double. Both runs were unearned to Burke’s line, as the inning began with a throwing error by Meidroth.

The White Sox quickly got those runs back, though, thanks to a two-run home run by Miguel Vargas. His 12th home run of the year came against a 3-2 fastball over the heart of the plate and knocked Baz out of the game with a career-high eight earned runs across four-plus innings. He allowed seven runs once this season, but before that, it hadn’t happened since 2022 during his last start before Tommy John surgery.

“We’ve been missing slug all year,” Venable said. “It’s really nice to have. That’s how you score runs and in bunches. So credit to our guys for having good approaches and getting some good swings off.”

Burke’s day was done after walking his fourth batter to begin the fifth inning. White Sox relievers cleaned up the inning, as left-hander Tyler Gilbert struck out lefties Jonathan Aranda and Brandon Lowe and Steven Wilson induced an inning-ending flyout. That left Burke’s final line at four innings, three hits, two unearned runs, zero earned runs, four walks and five strikeouts.

He was frustrated that he didn’t pitch deeper into the game, but happy the team was still able to get the win.

“I felt good. Just sweaty honestly in the first inning or two when the sun was still up,” Burke said. “Had a little bit of a hard time gripping the ball early on. But as the game went on, it got better. Once the sun went down, it’s been a little easier.”

The Rays got a run back in the seventh, with a Yandy Diaz home run off White Sox lefty Brandon Eisert. But that wouldn’t be nearly enough, as the White Sox held the Rays to just five hits. It was another good day for the White Sox bullpen, which covered five innings with just one earned run, making for an all-around positive team performance.

“Playing together, hitting together, pitching together,” Meidroth said. “We’re doing everything together right now, and I think that’s awesome. It’s fun to be a part of.”