By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

Former Ocean Springs High standout Garrett Crochet is on a personal best three game winning streak in the Major Leagues.

And he’ll put that successful string on the line Tuesday night.

Crochet tossed five scoreless innings as the Chicago White Sox shut down the visiting Washington Nationals late last week at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

Kenny Lee went three for three and drove in a run, while Tommy Pham and Andrew Benintendi each singled and doubled for Chicago in helping Crochet earn his third straight win on the mound.

Pham drove in the White Sox’s first run as they won their second straight series. It was the White Sox’s second consecutive shutout of Washington.

Crochet (4-4) allowed three hits and left after 89 pitches, 56 for strikes. The 6-foot-6 left-hander struck out six and matched his season-high with three walks.

Coming off an 11-strikeout win over Cleveland, Crochet wasn’t as sharp in this one as he went deep in counts and his pitch count climbed.

“It was kind of a grind,” Crochet told reporters afterwards. “I put myself in a hole early on. It was like 25 or 26 (pitches) in the first. Another 20-plus in the second and in the third.

“I threw a lot of high-stress pitches and so it really kind of eliminated any opportunity I had to go six (innings) today. The way that our bullpen’s been going lately, as soon as I handed it off, I knew that it was kind of a win in the bag.”

Three White Sox relievers were dominant after that to complete the three-hitter.

Michael Kopech worked around two walks in the ninth, striking out two, for his fifth save.

“It’s outstanding,” said Lee, the 25-year-old catcher who was behind the plate. “They’re doing it for us. They’ve been throwing strikes and they’ve been coming in in clutch situations. We couldn’t ask for more from them.”

Crochet worked out of a based-loaded jam in the third, after he walked a pair of Nationals with two outs.

Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the bottom half on Pham’s run-scoring double down the third-base line.

Lee’s RBI single with two outs in the sixth made it 2-0. He drove in Benintendi, who had doubled to the left-field corner.

Crochett, who was Chicago’s opening day starter, takes the hill again Tuesday night in search of his fourth straight win in Toronto against the Blue Jay with the chance to move one step above the .500 mark. The former Greyhound stalwart has registered wins over Washington, Cleveland and St. Louis the last three times he took the hill for the White Sox.

 The Blue Jays beat the White Sox 9-3 to open the series on Monday night marking the fourth straight loss for Chicago since the last time Crochet took the mound. The home-standing New York Yankees swept the White Sox in a three game series over the weekend.