Perhaps the baseball gods figured five straight wins and 23 consecutive shutout innings were enough favor to shine down on the Indians. Maybe the Tribe was blinded by the hideous ’80s throwback uniforms of the White Sox. Or, most likely, Cleveland’s loss on Sunday can be attributed to the fact that they played a hideous game themselves — punctuated by three errors — as Chicago cashed in for a 6-2 victory.
The scoreless inning streak evaporated in a hurry. Tribe starter Danny Salazar surrendered a lead-off double followed by a single that didn’t score the runner from second base, who held at third. The next White Sox hitter, Melky Cabrera, hit a sharp line drive single to right which definitely scored the first run. But Cleveland right fielder Abraham Almonte misplayed the ball after it hit about midway deep into the grass, and it skipped all the way to wall, allowing another run to score and Cabrera to make it all the way to third. Salazar later gave up another RBI single to Leury Garcia. All nine White Sox hitters came to the plate in the first inning as Salazar needed 35 pitches to get through the frame. And it could have been worse than a 3-0 deficit since the Sox left the bases loaded. Salazar hung in for five innings, adding nine strikeouts and three walks.
The other three Chicago runs also resulted from Tribe miscues. In the fifth inning, Salazar hit Jose Abreu who ended up scoring all the way from first when Avisail Garcia drove a ball off the top of the center field wall. In the sixth, Tribe second baseman Michael Martinez dropped the throw to first while covering on a sac bunt, allowing an extra out that would result in another Sox run. And even when that run scored on a single by Cabrera, catcher Roberto Perez dropped an excellent throw from left fielder Brandon Guyer that would have had the runner out by 10 feet. The last gift run came in the eighth when first baseman Carlos Santana let a sharp grounder go under his glove and carom wildly off his toe into right field as two runners were off to the races with two outs.
Offensively, the Indians didn’t have their best hitting line-up since Sox starter lefty Derek Holland prompted Terry Francona to keep Michael Brantley and Lonnie Chisenhall on the bench. The Tribe’s first run came on a solo home run by Francisco Lindor in the fourth. Their other run came in the ninth when Chisenhall led off with pinch hit bloop double. He took third on a deep flyout by Almonte and scored on a wild pitch from Sox closer David Robertson.
The Indians had an 0-fer day with runners in scoring position and left eight runners stranded.
Still, this ending was the only thing sour in a very successful road trip for the Tribe, taking five of six with one game against the Twins postponed due to rain.
Cleveland has Monday off, then welcomes the surging Houston Astros to Progressive Field on Tuesday. The Astros are 13-6 on the young season and have won 8 of their last 10.
At least another Cleveland team completed a sweep today. Congrats to the Cavs for finishing off the Indiana Pacers on the road and advancing to Round Two of the NBA playoffs.