Cleveland Indians Beat Chris Sale, White Sox 6-2

The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox Tuesday night by a score of 6-2. The Indians and Josh Tomlin were able to best White Sox ace Chris Sale, who lost his first game in ten outings this, falling to 9-1 on the year. The Indians moved to 24-20 on the year while the White Sox fell to 27-20. The Indians are now just 1.5 games behind the White Sox for the division lead and tied in the ever so important loss column. 

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Going up against arguably the best starting pitcher in the American League in Chris Sale, the Indians knew they would need a great start from Josh Tomlin and boy did they get it. Despite allowing a leadoff home run to White Sox right fielder Adam Eaton on the second pitch he threw, Tomlin was outstanding going eight strong innings allowing just two runs on five hits, one walk, and striking out six.

After the home run to Eaton, the only other run Tomlin allowed on the night was in the bottom of the 4th on back-to-back doubles by Jose Abreu and Brett Lawrie. Tomlin was so locked in after that, he retired 12 White Sox hitters in a row before Eaton singled with two outs in the bottom of the 8th (his last inning of work). Closer Cody Allen then came on to finish the game (in a non-save situation) and got the final three outs in the 9th. With the win, Tomlin moved to 7-0 on the season, becoming the first Indians pitcher to do that since Dennis Martinez started 9-0 in 1995.

Offensively the Indians were able to get to Sale, who entered the game with a league best 1.58 ERA. They tagged Sale for six runs (all earned) on seven hits and four walks, knocking Sale out after just 3 1/3 innings, his shortest start of the year. It snapped a streak of nine straight wins for Sale to begin the year as well. The Tribe first got to Sale in the 3rd inning when Mike Napoli hit a two-run triple to score both Jose Ramirez (who got the start at second base for Jason Kipnis) and Francisco Lindor. It was Napoli’s first (and possibly only?) triple of the year. He then scored on Juan Uribe‘s RBI single giving the Tribe a 3-1 lead.

The Tribe added three more in the top of the 4th when backup catcher Chris Gimenez took Sale deep to left field for a solo home run, his second of the year.  Later that inning Lindor singled home Rajai Davis making it 5-1 Cleveland and knocking Sale out of the game. Carlos Santana drove in the Tribe’s final run with a sacrifice fly off reliever Zach Putnam, scoring Ramirez.

After struggling to score runs in Boston, the Indians have now scored at least six runs in all three games in Chicago, quite the feat considering the White Sox were giving up the fewest runs in the American League heading into the series. The Tribe will look to keep the offense rolling as they try and take the four-game series this afternoon and close out this road trip with another victory. The Indians have already secured a winning trip, as they are not 5-3 with just the one game left to play.

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First pitch this afternoon is 2:10 pm EST as Tribe ace Corey Kluber (3-5, 4.10 ERA) faces off against left-hander Jose Quintana (5-3, 1.98 ERA). The Indians are off tomorrow before returning home for a 10-game homestand that begins Friday versus the American League leading Baltimore Orioles.