White Sox let big lead dwindle against Braves but hold on to snap four-game skid

ATLANTA — The White Sox needed better starting pitching and a better offense to break their late-summer slump, and they got both Monday, outslugging the Braves 13-9 to end a four-game losing streak.

There might have been a bit of a sour taste in their mouths after another shaky night for the bullpen almost led to the Sox coughing up a 10-1 lead, but this team will take victories any way it can get ’em.

‘‘These are the fun games. Sometimes they are not pretty, but we closed it out, and that’s all that matters,’’ said shortstop Colson Montgomery, who exited the game in the sixth inning with soreness on his left side that he called ‘‘nothing too serious.’’

Brooks Baldwin got a cathartic night for the offense started with a 404-foot solo home run off Braves starter Spencer Strider in the third.

The Sox added six runs in the fourth, starting when Luis Robert Jr. lined a two-run homer into the left-field bullpen for his first round-tripper in two weeks.

After singles by Kyle Teel — who later homered — and Chase Meidroth and a walk by Baldwin, Mike Tauchman hit a two-run double to knock Strider out of the game.

Miguel Vargas added a sacrifice fly, and hot-swinging Lenyn Sosa swatted an RBI single off reliever Austin Cox to cap the inning. The Sox had scored a combined five runs during their skid.

Sosa added an exclamation point with a mammoth 439-foot, three-run homer in the sixth, his team-leading 17th of the season.

Montgomery scored on the blast after drawing a walk but didn’t come out to the field in the bottom of the inning. He said he felt ‘‘a little bit of a stretch’’ while swinging in his last at-bat. He’s considered day-to-day.

Right-hander Yoendrys Gomez, making his second big-league start since the Sox picked him off the Dodgers’ scrap heap, mostly cruised until a double by Matt Olson in the fifth led to an RBI grounder by Ronald Acuna Jr.

Michael Harris II tagged Gomez for a two-run homer in the sixth, and manager Will Venable gave him the hook soon after, ending his night after five innings and three earned runs, He struck out three and walked one.

The Braves — who put shortstop Luke Williams on the mound when it looked like a blowout — made a game of it with late rallies sparked by Jurickson Profar, who homered against relievers Mike Vasil and Owen White. But the Sox hung on.

‘‘It was a great day overall,’’ Venable said. ‘‘Just got to try to stop the bleeding there with the bullpen.’’

Perez returns to rotation

After demoting right-hander Sean Burke to Triple-A Charlotte, the Sox announced left-hander Martin Perez will take the mound Wednesday against the Braves for his first start since April after working his way back from a forearm injury that initially seemed likely to end his season.

Perez, better known as ‘‘El Jefe’’ in the clubhouse, pitched 3⅓ innings in relief last week against the Tigers. Right-hander Aaron Civale’s originally scheduled start was pushed to Friday at home against the Twins.

White was called up from Charlotte to take Burke’s place on the active roster. He gave up four runs in a third of an inning.