One victory shy of securing their sixth straight home series win, the Chicago White Sox applauded the fans who have backed them through the early stages of what’s shaping up as a turnaround season.

“Having all of them (a crowd of 30,019) here in the stadium, showing all the love for us, and seeing them support the team the whole year, that brings all the energy for us in the clubhouse,” third baseman Miguel Vargas said.

After Vargas delivered his first career walk-off home run Friday in the 10th inning, the White Sox will try to win the three-game series from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon. But they will play without slugging first baseman Munetaka Murakami, who left in the third inning of Friday’s 4-3 win with right hamstring tightness.

Chicago manager Will Venable said Murakami — the American League co-leader with 20 home runs — will undergo further evaluation Saturday but is facing a recovery of “probably a couple of weeks.”

Colson Montgomery and Vargas are next for the White Sox with 13 homers apiece. Murakami shares the AL home-run lead with Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros.

“Home run” is a four-base hit for every club but arguably is a four-letter word to the Tigers. Detroit has surrendered four walk-off homers this season and has lost two straight games and 19 of its last 23.

“It’s not numb,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It still hurts. Obviously, we want to win every game.

“We want to win as many games as we can, and we’re having a hard time. … There’s no good way to walk off the field. When you’re the visiting team and you’re walking off the field, the emotion is pretty deep. It’s not a great feeling, and we’ve got to go home with it, come back tomorrow and play another game.”

White Sox pitching limited the Tigers to four hits in the series opener, including a pair of Riley Greene singles. Greene is 4-for-12 in his past three games on the heels of an 0-for-11 slump.

Dillon Dingler’s two-run blast in the third inning extended his team lead to 11 homers for the season.

Saturday’s pitching matchup will pit a pair of left-handers in Chicago’s Anthony Kay (4-1, 3.96 ERA) and Detroit’s Framber Valdez (2-3, 4.28).

Kay will aim for his second victory of the homestand and fourth in six May starts. He defeated the Minnesota Twins 3-1 on Monday behind six innings of one-run, five-hit ball with one walk and five strikeouts.

After three straight starts without allowing a home run, Kay gave up a solo shot to Minnesota’s Brooks Lee. He has yet to face the Tigers in his career.

Valdez boasts plenty of experience and success against Chicago. He is 5-3 with a 3.00 ERA in 10 appearances, including nine starts, with 60 strikeouts in 57 innings.

While Valdez is 0-2 with a 6.10 ERA in four starts this month — which started with a five-game suspension for intentionally throwing at Boston’s Trevor Story in a May 5 loss — Valdez has shown more consistency lately.

He has delivered two quality starts in his past three turns in the rotation. The latest came Sunday, when Valdez scattered one run, two hits, two walks and five strikeouts in six innings in a no-decision at Baltimore. The Tigers lost 5-3.

–Field Level Media

The Toronto Blue Jays have found answers even with an evolving lineup, and that might be one of the biggest parts of their emerging confidence midway through their series with the Baltimore Orioles.

The teams will meet Saturday afternoon in the third contest of a four-game series in Baltimore.

The Blue Jays have a pair of one-run victories to start the series, including rallying from a five-run hole for Friday night’s 6-5 victory.

Toronto is 8-2 in its last 10 games. Manager John Schneider has found the right combinations, including from second baseman Charles McAdoo, who homered in his first big-league game Friday.

“Just really honing in on where I want to swing the bat and where I want the ball to start,” McAdoo said before the series about his approach upon his promotion to the major leagues.

There was lots for the Orioles to dissect after the late-inning struggles. But manager Craig Albernaz said he remains confident in reliever Yennier Cano even though he had troubles in the eighth inning and suffered the loss.

“We love the matchups with Cano, and he has been throwing the ball extremely well,” Albernaz said. “We were more than comfortable bringing him in there.”

The Orioles weren’t able to generate offense in the late innings, however.

“Thought we swung the bat really well the first half of the game, and sometimes that happens,” infielder Jackson Holliday said. “Sometimes they make good pitches and hitting is really hard.”

There were encouraging parts of the performance for the Orioles. Holliday hit his second home run of the week.

“I feel good,” he said. “I feel like I’m seeing the ball good. I’ve enjoyed working with the hitting guys and trying to keep simple thoughts up there. I’m happy with where I’m at.”

Right-hander Trey Yesavage (2-2, 2.25 ERA) will start for Toronto on Saturday and will try to maintain a clean slate of keeping the ball in the park. He hasn’t given up a home run in 32 innings this season.

Since starting the season on the injury list, Yesavage expanded his durability to a season-high 98 pitches in Monday’s 6 2/3-inning stint in an 8-2 home loss to the Miami Marlins. He’s a key part to what at times has been a patchwork rotation.

In Yesavage’s six starts this season, the Blue Jays have alternated wins and losses, so based on that trend they’re due to win Saturday. He has never faced the Orioles.

Schneider said Yesavage has been more deserving than what some of the results have produced this season.

Right-hander Brandon Young (3-1, 3.47 ERA) will start for the Orioles on Saturday. He will look to build off Sunday’s outing vs. the Detroit Tigers, who he held to two unearned runs in a season-high 6 2/3 innings of Baltimore’s 5-3 win.

The Orioles are 6-1 in games in which Young has pitched. Last July, in his only career matchup against Toronto, he had a no-decision while tossing six innings and allowing two runs.

–Field Level Media

In a matchup of struggling offenses, the Texas Rangers broke out at the plate Friday to build some needed confidence and potential momentum.

Following one of their most dominant performances of the season, the Rangers will try to hand the visiting Kansas City Royals a fifth straight defeat when the teams meet Saturday afternoon at Arlington, Texas.

Texas had totaled 23 runs while losing six of its previous seven contests before rolling to a 9-1 victory over Kansas City in Friday’s series opener. Five games under .500, the Rangers haven’t won two games in a row since May 19-20.

“I think that with a good stretch of baseball, we could put ourselves in a very good position,” Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young told the team’s official website.

While MacKenzie Gore allowed four hits over 6 1/3 scoreless innings Friday, Ezequiel Duran’s two-run single highlighted a four-run first inning that essentially put the game away.

Brandon Nimmo and Nicky Lopez each hit a two-run homer, and Joc Pederson also went deep for the Rangers, who posted 10 hits to match their total from losing the previous two games.

“Keep fighting,” Duran told the Rangers Sports Network. “Try to win the game.”

Duran, stepping in at shortstop while star Corey Seager remains out with a lower-back injury, is 6-for-14 with four RBIs in the last four games. Pederson, meanwhile, has hit four of his seven home runs this season in the last four contests.

Pederson is just 2-for-19 in his career against Saturday’s scheduled Kansas City starter, right-hander Seth Lugo (2-4, 3.74 ERA), but one of those hits was a home run.

Lugo, who is 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA in three career appearances vs. Texas, was strong in his only two previous starts against Rangers. In 12 1/3 combined innings in those outings last season, the veteran allowed three runs and six hits while striking out 14.

Now, Lugo will eye a third straight quality start after he yielded three runs over 6 1/3 innings in an 8-6 victory against Seattle on Sunday to earn his first winning decision since his season debut.

However, if Lugo is to have a chance at another win, his Royals teammates must find a way to score.

A loser in 14 of its last 17 games, Kansas City has only five runs during its four-game skid. It also hasn’t helped that the Royals have allowed 31 runs and 42 hits, including 10 homers, in the last three games.

“There’s frustration,” Royals star Salvador Perez told the club’s official website. “We need to prove that we’re better. We need to figure it out. We’ve got to win some games.”

Kansas City’s Maikel Garcia had two hits Friday and is 10-for-28 in the last seven games. However, teammate and Dallas-area native Bobby Witt Jr. is 0-for-8 in the last two games and is batting .191 over the last 12.

The Royals will get their first look at scheduled Rangers starter Kumar Rocker (2-5, 3.96 ERA) on Saturday.

After throwing 12 2/3 scoreless innings in his previous two outings, the right-hander gave up four runs, four hits and three walks in five innings of Monday’s 9-0 loss to Houston.

–Field Level Media