BOSTON — It was quite the homecoming for White Sox starter and Massachusetts native Sean Burke.
Burke rebounded from three consecutive poor outings to hold the Red Sox to one earned run (four in all) and five hits in five innings in the White Sox’ 8-4 victory Sunday. He struck out five and walked three.
With the Celtics’ playoff game against the Magic playing on TV in the background, Burke was jubilant when going over his start at Fenway Park. It was his first time pitching in his home state.
“It was a little too high stress of an outing to sit back and have fun and enjoy it,” Burke said. “After the first inning, I felt like I settled down a little bit. Definitely some progress from the last couple of starts. Me and [catcher Matt Thaiss] talked a lot this week about some small adjustments we were trying to make, some game-planning issues. Thaiss did an unbelievable job calling the game and just making my life a lot easier.
“At the end of the day, it’s good progress going forward and something to build off of. Take those things I need to work on a little bit and home in on those.”
Burke ran into trouble in the first inning after back-to-back errors by Lenyn Sosa and Miguel Vargas. After a mound visit by Thaiss, Burke allowed a three-run homer to Wilyer Abreu on a 2-1 changeup high in the zone. He regrouped and got the next two outs to end the inning.
But Burke wasn’t done dealing with traffic. After allowing an RBI single to Jarren Duran, Burke walked Rafael Devers and hit Alex Bregman to load the bases with two outs in the second.
Abreu was up again and lined out sharply to right field. Burke allowed two hits over his last three innings.
“He did a good job settling down, was in control really the whole time he was out there,” manager Will Venable said.
Hendriks’ return
Former Sox reliever Liam Hendriks appeared in a major-league game for the first time in 681 days.
Hendriks entered in the eighth inning and allowed a single to Luis Robert Jr. and a two-run homer to Andrew Vaughn, both former teammates.
“So it was a little bit good and bad as far as that goes because you know them, and then you’ve faced them before, and you’ve seen what they can do and what they can miss,” Hendriks told reporters. “Unfortunately, I didn’t execute to either of them.”
Before the 2024 season, Hendriks signed a two-year, $10 million contract with Boston but didn’t appear in a major-league game while recovering from Tommy John surgery, which he had in 2023.
Perez update
Left-hander Martin Perez (strained left forearm) was in the clubhouse saying his goodbyes to teammates before flying back to Chicago to get more tests done. Perez, who was put on the 15-day injured list Saturday, had been the rotation’s steadiest performer with a 3.15 ERA in four starts.