Indians 4, White Sox 0: No margin for error

Three months into the season, Chris Sale is 5-7. Games like this go a long way in explaining how that happened.

Sale pitched well against Cleveland in the finale, striking out 10 over eight innings while allowing just eight baserunners. But he misplaced three fastballs at the wrong time, the Indians took advantage, and that was all they needed for an easy victory to seal a four-game sweep.

Sale had no-hit stuff early on, so much so that Drew Stubbs was compelled to bunt for the Tribe's first hit leading off the fourth. It was a shrewd move that paid off handsomely. He took second on a one-out groundout, then came around to score when Ryan Raburn raked a plate-splitting fastball to the left-center gap to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead.

The Indians had all the runs they needed, but they didn't know that at the time. So Carlos Santana added to it by roping another hittable fastball to left for an RBI single.

In the fifth, Michael Brantley singled and Yan Gomes doubled (both on fastballs) to put runners on second and third. A groundout got Brantley home, and Sale cut off the damage after that.

But it was already too much, because the White Sox offense spent most of the day killing their own threats as soon as they could. Justin Masterson allowed seven Sox to reach (six singles, one walk), and five of them didn't live to see the end of the inning. Masterson induced four double plays, and Yan Gomes picked off Alejandro De Aza at first base for good measure.

Record: 32-47 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights