A healthier Andrew Benintendi has been showcasing his power for the Chicago White Sox: ‘I’ve been searching for a feel since 2018′

The Chicago White Sox weren’t having much success against Seattle Mariners starter Luis Castillo.

Andrew Benintendi struck out his first two at-bats against the right-hander.

And Castillo had fanned four consecutive Sox batters when Benintendi came to bat again in the sixth inning of the Aug. 21 game at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“I was getting blown away by his heaters and I figured, ‘What’s the worst thing that can happen? I’ll strike out?’” Benintendi said Saturday. “So I might as well try something and I ended up hitting a double.”

He sliced a 98 mph fastball to left field on a 1-2 pitch for the double.

“I think it kind of clicked right there,” Benintendi said. “Don’t want to jinx it or anything, but going to keep trying to ride it out.”

Benintendi has been in a good rhythm at the plate, including showing some more power. He homered in three of his last six games entering Monday’s series opener against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

“I’ve been searching for a feel since 2018,” he said. “Facing Castillo the other day, I felt that again. So I’m just trying to replicate that as much as possible. Hitting the ball in the air and hitting the ball harder, so I think it’s trending in the right direction.”

Benintendi went 0-for-4 in the 9-0 loss to the Orioles in front of 12,325.

The Orioles scored two in the third and two in the fourth against Sox starter Michael Kopech, who allowed four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and four walks in four innings. Baltimore added five in the eighth, which featured a three-run homer by Anthony Santander against reliever Edgar Navarro.

The Sox couldn’t get much going offensively. Luis Robert Jr. had the team’s only two hits.

Benintendi came into Monday’s game slashing .277/.342/.374 with 28 doubles, five home runs and 38 RBIs. Each of the three home runs last week came against left-handers.

“I saw him for a couple years, and he’s got power,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said Saturday. Grifol was the bench coach in Kansas City when Benintendi played for the Royals in 2021 and a portion of 2022. “He had a tough offseason. He had that surgery (after suffering a broken hook of his right hamate bone last September), then he had the (right) hand injury early (this season). We haven’t really seen what he can do. This is what he can do.

“He can drive the ball out of the ballpark to left field, he can pull the ball and drive it out, he can hit you between 15 and 20 (home runs). He hasn’t done it this year, but he’s a tough at-bat, he’s a baseball player. Plays to win every night, knows what he’s doing, takes his walks. I think (Benintendi’s) best years with the White Sox are ahead of him, for sure.”

Benintendi hit a solo home run in the ninth inning Tuesday against the Mariners. While he didn’t homer, he had an RBI single in the ninth Wednesday against the Mariners to bring in the tying run in a game the Sox won in 10 innings. He homered again in the first inning Thursday against the Oakland Athletics and in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game.

Benintendi has noticed some difference with a healthier hand.

“I can tell,” Benintendi said. “The part of my swing where my hand kind of gave up earlier in the year is now driving through the ball. I think that’s not a big part of it, but a part of it. I’m just going to keep trying to get it better and get stronger.”

Entering Monday, Benintendi had hit safely in 11 of his last 13 games. He was 17-for-50 (.340) with three doubles, three home runs, seven RBIs, five walks and a .980 OPS during the stretch.

“I know who he is,” Grifol said Friday. “I’ve seen it before. Players like him, at his age (29), you just don’t lose it like that. He’s going to show a lot of what he’s shown the last couple of days.”

Grifol also took comfort knowing Benintendi was in the outfield in the spacious Camden Yards, where it’s 384 feet to straightaway left field and 398 to left-center.

“He understands the position, the depths, we talked about it,” Grifol said before Monday’s game. “There’s a lot of room out there, yeah, he’s the right guy to play out there.”

Benintendi displayed some of his all-around game Sunday, scoring from first base on a throwing error in the third inning of the 6-1 win against the A’s. Benintendi had two hits in that game and scored twice.

“He’s played through a lot this year,” Grifol said Friday. “I’m looking forward to a really good offseason for him, where he’s completely healthy. Where he can get in the gym and get stronger and do his thing the way he normally does it in the offseason and come back really strong in spring training.”