White Sox' Sean Burke makes 'progress' in first start at Fenway Park

BOSTON — Sunday was quite the homecoming for White Sox starter and Massachusetts native Sean Burke.

Burke rebounded from four straight poor outings to hold the Red Sox to four runs (one earned) on five hits with five strikeouts in the White Sox' 8-4 win Sunday.

With the Celtics’ playoff game against the Orlando Magic playing above his head, Burke was jovial as he recanted his outing at Fenway Park because 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 hone 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 with Thaiss, Burke allowed a three-run homer to Wilyer Abreu on a 2-1 changeup high in the zone —all runs were unearned. Burke’s outing could have snowballed, but the right-hander regrouped and got the next two outs to end the inning.

But Burke wasn’t done dealing with traffic on Sunday. After allowing a run to score on an RBI single by Jarren Duran, Burke walked Rafael Devers and hit Alex Bregman to load the bases with two outs in the second.

Abreu was up to bat again, and Burke forced him to line out sharply to right field on an 80.6 mph curveball. Burke allowed just 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 White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks appeared in a major league game for the first time in 681 days. Hendriks entered the game in the eighth inning, allowing a single to Luis Robert Jr. and a two-run homer to Andrew Vaughn, both former teammates of Hendriks.

“So it was little bit good and bad as far as that goes because you know them, and then you face 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 and didn’t appear in a major league game as he recovered from a 2023 Tommy John surgery.

Perez update

White Sox starter Martin Perez (left forearm strain) was in the locker room saying his goodbyes to his teammates before flying back to Chicago to get more tests ran on his left forearm. Perez, who was placed on the 15-day injured list on Saturday, had been the rotation’s steadiest performer to begin the season.

Perez had a 3.15 ERA over four starts.