Chicago White Sox starter Sean Burke missed on his first two pitches to Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Joey Loperfido during the fifth inning Monday at Rate Field.

Burke then threw a fastball over the outer portion of the plate, and Loperfido crushed it for a tiebreaking solo home run to right field.

Two pitches later, Burke surrendered a home run to Nathan Lukes on a high changeup.

The Sox never recovered from the back-to-back blasts, falling 8-4 in front of 13,292 at Rate Field.

The consecutive home runs gave the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead. Toronto (53-38) added five more runs the next inning on the way to its ninth straight victory.

The Sox, meanwhile, matched a season high by falling 31 games under .500 (30-61).

“I felt like I could have done a better job in some parts,” Burke said. “It’s a good lineup, they’re hot right now. I didn’t really feel great with my stuff, kind of overall tonight.

“A few pitches here and there, maybe pitch-selection-wise, could have been better. Some of the pitches, a little bit better execution would have helped. They also hit some pretty good pitches too.”

Burke allowed six runs on six hits with two strikeouts and three walks in five-plus innings.

“I thought his stuff was good,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “There were a couple of pitches he thought that didn’t go his way. And with an offense like that, you need every one of those pitches. You can’t make mistakes.

“It all kind of culminated in an outing that probably was a worse line than how he pitched.”

The Sox grabbed an early lead on an RBI single by Brooks Baldwin in the second. The Blue Jays tied the score with an RBI single by Bo Bichette in the fourth, then went ahead on the back-to-back home runs by Loperfido and Lukes.

“The first one, fastball away, 2-0 count, maybe pivot to a different pitch — I don’t think it was a bad pitch 2-0,” Burke said. “(The changeup to Lukes) was just a terrible location. It was high, got to get that pitch lower. Leave a changeup middle-up, it’s not going to be a great result.”

Burke surrendered a double to Bichette to begin the sixth. Addison Barger followed with a home run on a 1-2 changeup, extending Toronto’s lead to 5-1.

“The changeup (Barger) hit was a good pitch, he just went down and got it,” Burke said.

Burke faced one more batter, allowing a single to Alejandro Kirk. Loperfido added a two-run single and Lukes had a sacrifice fly later in the sixth against reliever Brandon Eisert as the Blue Jays pushed their lead to 8-1.

“They make you pay for mistakes,” Venable said. “They are swinging the bats really well right now. I thought early there, Sean did an OK job and he was all right. Then in the sixth, they really grinded at-bats, two-strike damage. It was really the difference.”

The Sox couldn’t get much going offensively against Blue Jays starter José Berríos. The right-hander allowed one run on two hits with four strikeouts and two walks in six innings.

Some offense came later in the game with a two-run single by Mike Tauchman in the seventh against Robinson Piña. Tauchman had three hits Monday and has 10 in his last four games.

“He continues to hit the ball hard, make good swing decisions, and he seems to always be on time, always on every pitch,” Venable said. “He’s hitting fastballs, he’s taking close pitches, making good decisions and giving us really quality at-bats, really consistent.”

Burke looks forward to the opportunity to return to the consistency he showed in his three previous starts (two earned runs in 16 1/3 innings).

“Just not as crisp, as sharp as it has been,” Burke said of Monday’s outing. “Felt I was yanking some of the breaking balls or leaving some stuff up. As the game went on, usually I kind of start to find my groove a little bit later in the game. But I felt the stuff, the feel didn’t really improve as I’d like it to.”