The Cleveland Indians' primary purpose this year is to make the Chicago White Sox feel better about themselves.
The Sox improved to 6-1 over the Tribe this season with a lot of help from their so-called opponents. Three of the four runs came off two Cleveland errors, and the bigger one was also the funniest.
With two outs in the sixth inning, Justin Masterson intentionally walked Paul Konerko with a runner on second and two outs in order to face Adam Dunn. The move appeared to pay off when Dunn hit a deep-but-not-threatening fly to center.
Ezequiel Carrera looked uncomfortable from the get-go. He ran back to the track, turned around, and then started staggering well before the fly got to him. The situation worsened for him. He appeared to lose the ball in the sun as he put his mitt out. The ball clanked off it, and because there were two outs, even Konerko was able to rumble around the bases from first to give the White Sox a 3-1 lead.
It's appropriate to note that Carrera was wearing sunglasses -- on his hat.
As it turned out, three runs would have won this game, but the Indians decided to give the Sox a little insurance the next inning. Alex Rios reached on an Asdrubal Cabrera error -- he hit a soft liner that Cabrera could've charged, but he decided to back up and the ball skipped past him.
Rios acted on the generosity by stealing second, and he also took third when Carlos Santana's throw sailed into center (this is an advertisement for feet-first sliding, because Rios popped up and kept running, while a headfirst slider probably would have failed to locate the ball). Mark Teahen then earned an RBI by dropping a single to right for the last run of the game.
And so a typical Edwin Jackson performance -- often difficult to watch, but ultimately effective enough -- was enough to improve his record to 7-7. He struggled to throw strike one early, and then had trouble finishing at-bats late, but he completed six innings with just two runs allowed.
Great bullpen work by Chris Sale helped sustain momentum from the last Cleveland gift. He struck out the side in the eighth and retired the first batter in the ninth, and needed just 15 pitches to do so.
That got the game to Sergio Santos, who walked the first batter he faced on four pitches. In fact, he threw only five of his 14 pitches for strikes, but defense came to his rescue. On a full count with a runner on second, Lonnie Chisenhall hit a grounder to the hole on the right side. Omar Vizquel was able to stop it with a dive, pop-up and throw a one-hopper to Konerko, beating Chisenhall by a step and ending the game.
Notes:
*Vizquel's earlier highlight: Halfheartedly throwing the bat on a pitchout, which foiled a hit-and-run attempt.
*Rios and A.J. Pierzynski had some really intense bat slams.
*The White Sox finished the road trip 5-3.
Record: 49-51 | Box score | Play-by-play