White Sox score 7 runs before making an out in the 3rd, pound the Orioles 9-3

BALTIMORE (AP) — Colson Montgomery and Junior Perez homered during Chicago's seven-run third inning and the White Sox pounded the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 on Tuesday night.

Erick Fedde (3-6) allowed three runs in five innings for Chicago, which extended its lead atop the AL Central to two games over Cleveland. Tyler Schweitzer worked the final four innings for his first career save.

Orioles starter Trey Gibson (1-3) yielded eight runs, seven hits and six walks in 2 2/3 innings. He struck out five.

Chicago went 13-12 in June, making this the first time the White Sox have managed back-to-back winning months since 2021. They had a winning record in every month that year.

The game was tied at 1 entering the third, and then the first seven Chicago batters came around to score. After a single by Andrew Benintendi, Montgomery connected for this 21st homer of the year, a 440-foot shot to right-center.

Two walks later, Tristan Peters blooped a single to load the bases. Jacob Gonzalez followed with a two-run single, and then Perez's 409-foot three-run homer made it 8-1.

Benintendi opened the scoring with an RBI double in the first, and Baltimore tied it in the bottom of that inning on Samuel Basallo's single.

Gonzalez doubled home a run in the fourth to make it 9-1. The Orioles scored twice in the fifth on an RBI double by Dylan Beavers and a run-scoring single by Pete Alonso.

Benintendi and Gonzalez finished with three hits apiece.

The White Sox go for a three-game sweep in Wednesday's matinee. Noah Schultz (2-4, 5.82) takes the hill for the South Siders, and the O's had not announced a starter.

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Chicago White Sox's Kyle Teel singles during the second inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Trey Gibson, center, is pulled by manager Craig Albernaz, left, during the third inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Chicago White Sox pitcher Erick Fedde throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Chicago White Sox's Colson Montgomery (12) celebrates his two-run home run with Andrew Benintendi (23) during the third inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Chicago White Sox's Colson Montgomery gestures as he rounds the bases and celebrates his two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Colorado’s Democratic primaries on Tuesday will help answer a question the party has increasingly faced nationally: Are voters gravitating toward a younger, more progressive generation of leaders or sticking with established veterans?

That choice is starkly reflected in the fight to represent the state's 1st Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette has been in office for as long as her challenger, a 29-year-old democratic socialist named Melat Kiros, has been alive. In a similar faceoff, Sen. John Hickenlooper successfully fended off a primary challenge from self-fashioned “insurgent progressive" state Sen. Julie Gonzales.

And a similar, if smaller, divide separated the two Democrats competing for the U.S. House in the state's lone swing district, a seat that will be one of the keys to controlling the chamber in President Donald Trump's final two years in office.

In the Democratic primary for governor, however, the opposite was the case: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet struggled to meaningfully distinguish their agendas. Instead, the two Democrats have accused each other of pulling punches against Trump.

Polls closed at 7 p.m.

DeGette comfortably controlled her House seat in Denver for nearly 30 years, then came Kiros.

In a March Democratic assembly, a process to decide which candidates get on the primary ballot, DeGette barely qualified as Kiros, a first-time candidate, blew past her with more than double the votes.

While the assembly process is far from determinative of who will win Tuesday, it was a jolt for the Democratic establishment and DeGette, who's been a progressive lawmaker herself.

Then, in New York last week, two democratic socialists and a progressive beat out establishment-backed candidates — two of whom were incumbents — in Democratic primaries for U.S. House, energizing a movement that's just finding some political purchase.

Similar to the New York races, Kiros had the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders, while DeGette was backed by Colorado’s established Democratic House delegation.

A victory by Kiros in Colorado, while far from guaranteed, would work toward cementing the nascent but clear uprising of democratic socialist candidates, which has filled some Democratic leaders with anxiety.

DeGette argued that experience in Congress is needed right now to combat Trump, while Kiros, a former attorney, accused DeGette of ineffectiveness. Also running was University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, who may split the anti-DeGette vote.

Gonzales, the state senator, tried and failed Tuesday to kick Hickenlooper, the more centrist former governor of Colorado, out of his U.S. Senate seat.

She leaned into the same arguments that others used in challenging establishment incumbents, including that Hickenlooper was an “incrementalist."

Gonzales had said she previously joined the Democratic Socialists of America in 2018, but that her membership has lapsed.

Colorado's 8th Congressional District is relatively new and stretches from the northern suburbs of Denver up through farming country.

Since its creation in 2021, it's swung from Democratic to GOP control and is held now by Republican Rep. Gabe Evans. With Democrats aiming to take back control of the House and obstruct Trump's agenda, the race is closely watched.

Party leaders thought a moderate like state Rep. Shannon Bird was best equipped to challenge Evans, but the district is also heavily Hispanic and poorer than much of the rest of the state.

That's where Bird's Democratic primary opponent state Rep. Manny Rutinel, who is Latino, planted a flag, arguing his personal story and more aggressive economic agenda would be more potent against Evans.

Weiser and Bennet slugged that question out in the governor's race after struggling to show major differences in their political agendas.

Weiser attacked Bennet for voting for Trump nominees and Bennet lambasted Weiser for not joining state lawsuits against the first Trump administration.

“The attorney general says he’s really tough but was completely missing in action in Donald Trump’s first term," Bennet said in a recent debate.

Weiser accused Bennet of a weak response to the president. But he also said Bennet should remain in the Senate instead of running for governor.

“You’ve made some mistakes; you didn’t stand up the way you should. I know you can shape up, use your seniority," Weiser told Bennet during a debate. “With all that experience, to throw it away, would be such a waste for Colorado.”

With Colorado a blue state, Tuesday's Democratic winner will be seen as the favorite to defeat the winner of the GOP primary and take over from term-limited Gov. Jared Polis.

The three main candidates seeking the Republican nomination included state Rep. Scott Bottoms, a further right state lawmaker. State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer was considered the more conventional Republican, while Victor Marx was something of a wild card candidate with an eclectic past.

Adam Ballinger walks a voters ballot to the box in the Democratic primaries at a drop off location near the Denver Museum of Art, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/Rebecca Slezak)

People vote in the Democratic primaries at Blair-Caldwell Library, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/Rebecca Slezak)