Indians beat (barely) first-place White Sox, 4-3
The Indians got on the board early when Russ Canzler led off the second inning with a home run, just his third of the season but his second in less than 24 hours.
In the fourth, Canzler ignited another rally, with a double that pushed Carlos Santana to third base with nobody out. Francisco Liriano struck out Matt LaPorta, but walked Brett Lillibridge to load the bases. It looked like Liriano would escape the inning when Thomas Neal slapped a double-play grounder to second baseman Gordon Beckham. But Beckham's throw was low to shortstop Alexei Ramirez, whose relay to first base was slightly too late to retire Neal and end the inning. Two singles later, Liriano was out of the game and the Indians were ahead 4-0.
The White Sox roared back in the bottom of the fifth when A.J. Pierzynski opened the frame with his 27th home run and Dayan Viciedo followed with his 22nd. But those were the only two runs Indians rookie Corey Kluber gave up before giving way to the bullpen after seven innings. In the eighth, Adam Dunn came up with a runner on base and two outs. On the mound: reliever Vinnie Pestano, who'd given up one of Dunn's two home runs Monday night. But this time Pestano struck out Dunn, swinging at a breaking ball.
Indians closer Chris Perez came on in the ninth, and Paul Konerko drove a first-pitch fastball over the left-field fence to make the score 4-3. But Perez then worked around Dan Johnson's and Alexei Ramirez's back-to-back, two-out walks to earn his 37th save, with Beckham making the last out on a grounder to shortstop.
The ChiSox have lost six of their last seven games, and can only await Tuesday night’s news from Detroit.
