CHICAGO – The Chicago White Sox did not lead for the first time this season, as Sal Fasano and David Newhan hit their first home runs in the Baltimore Orioles’ 6-2 victory on Sunday.

Chicago set a major league record by having a lead in 37 straight games to begin a season. That also tied the 1934 Yankees and 1942 Cardinals for the third-longest overall streak with a lead.

But the Orioles used seven strong innings from Erik Bedard and two RBIs apiece from Fasano and Newhan to build a 4-0 lead on their way to a split of the four-game series between division leaders.

Fasano led off the third with a homer in his first major league at-bat since September 2002, when he was with the Anaheim Angels. It was his first hit and home run since he was with the Colorado Rockies in 2001.

The well-traveled 33-year-old catcher was just called up from Triple-A Ottawa on Wednesday and added an RBI single in the seventh, going 2-for-4.

Newhan came into the game hitting .156 (5-for-32) with one RBI. He homered leading off the sixth and added a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

The White Sox were hitless from the second inning until the seventh, when Carl Everett and Jermaine Dye hit back-to-back solo homers.

Tadahito Iguchi hit into double plays in the first and third innings. Chicago had four baserunners from the second through sixth.

Bedard (4-1) won his fourth straight decision, giving up five hits, including the two homers, in seven-plus innings. He was pulled in the eighth after giving up a leadoff single to Scott Podsednik.

Jose Contreras (1-1) allowed five runs and seven hits, walked one and struck out four in 6 1-3 innings.

Jay Gibbons hit a ground-rule double in the seventh when a security guard mistakenly grabbed his hit after it bounced into foul territory in right field. Fasano then scored Gibbons on a hard-hit single off the pitcher’s mound.

Contreras was pulled after walking Jeff Fiorentino, and Neal Cotts loaded the bases with one out by hitting Brian Roberts. Newhan made it 4-0 with his sacrifice fly.

Melvin Mora reached on an error by Joe Crede to reload the bases, and Luis Vizcaino gave up an RBI single to Miguel Tejada, but Juan Uribe threw out Roberts at the plate from shortstop to end the inning.

Keith Reed got his first career hit in the eighth, scoring Rafael Palmeiro from third on a bloop single to make it 6-2.

Notes: Palmeiro’s double in the eighth was the 578th of his career, tying him with Wade Boggs for 14th all-time. … Sammy Sosa, who is on the 15-day DL with an abscess and staph infection on his left foot, will begin hitting on Wednesday, manager Lee Mazzilli said before the game. “If he’s going to hit, that’s a good sign,” Mazzilli said. … Fasano only had one at-bat in two games in 2002. After a year out of baseball, he hit .299 for the Yankees’ Triple-A club last season. … Newhan’s last home run came on Sept. 22, 2004, at Boston. … Podsednik stole his 23rd base in the eighth.

AP-ES-05-15-05 1815EDT