Jose Ramirez and Carlos Santana both homered, and Josh Naylor collected three hits as the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 7-4 on Monday night.
The loss is the White Sox third in their last four games, and their divisional lead over the Minnesota Twins is now down to one and a half games with just six games left in the regular season.
Jace Fry took the loss for the White Sox after giving up a go-ahead home run to Santana in the fifth inning. Dane Dunning pitched four innings and gave up four earned runs while striking out five batters for the South Siders.
Aaron Civale gave up four earned runs and struck out six batters in six innings in the start for Cleveland. Brad Hand picked up his 14th save with a scoreless ninth inning of relief.
The Indians got out to an early lead as Ramirez blasted a three-run home run off of Dunning in the first inning, scoring Cesar Hernandez and Francisco Lindor. Hernandez added another run in the second inning as he hit an RBI single to right field, giving Cleveland a 4-0 lead.
The White Sox offense came alive in the fifth, as Jose Abreu smacked a single to center, scoring Tim Anderson and Yasmani Grandal. Eloy Jimenez then hit a two-run homer to right-center, tying up the game at 4-4.
Unfortunately for the White Sox, their bullpen couldn’t take advantage of that momentum, as Fry gave up a two-run shot to Santana to allow Cleveland to seize the lead back. Franmil Reyes hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh for an insurance run, and that’s all the Indians needed as they wrapped up the victory.
Chicago Baseball
The White Sox will be in for a tough challenge on Tuesday night, as they’ll face American League Cy Young candidate Shane Bieber. Reynaldo Lopez will counter for the White Sox, with first pitch set for 5:10 p.m.
