It took the Indians longer to not score in the first inning than it took them to put the game away in the fourth.
The Cleveland lineup batted around, tagging Andre Rienzo for five runs on the first 14 pitches they saw. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run homer, and Lonnie Chisenhall one-upped his colleague with a three-run shot three batters later. He completed the inning with no further damage, but the horse already left the barn. He only faced one more batter, starting the fifth with a leadoff walk that didn't come around to score.
The (short-lived) hope was that he got his wildness out of the way in the first inning ,when he loaded the bases with nobody out and escaped the jam unscathed. He needed 26 pitches to finish the first, but pitch count wasn't what did him in. He just ran into a buzzsaw.
So did the White Sox lineup, for that matter. Ubaldo Jimenez took a shutout into the ninth inning, as the Sox never really threatened until they trailed 8-0. The closest they came was in the third, when Josh Phegley and Marcus Semien singled to start the inning. Alejandro De Aza came to the plate with the intent to bunt, but fouled off two tries before striking out, and the rally fizzled. Otherwise, the Sox tried to cobble together singles and walks, but they didn't have enough of either.
They preserved shreds of dignity in at least two respects. Josh Phegley's hustle double with two outs in the seventh allowed the Sox to avoid their 20th consecutive inning without an extra-base hit. They also avoided the shutout in the ninth, as Avisail Garcia, Conor Gillaspie and Dayan Viciedo all singled with one out, and Phegley's sac fly was deep enough to bring home Garcia.
Bullet points:
*De Aza robbed Jason Kipnis of a homer in center, only to whiff on running down Jose Ramirez's deep fly to center in the ninth. It was scored a triple, and he crossed the plate as the eighth run.
*Garcia made a nice leaping catch in right on the warning track to haul in Jason Giambi's tricky smash, sparing Rienzo a double.
*White Sox pitchers walked eight Indians hitters. The first four pitchers issued a walk per inning pitch, starting with Rienzo (four), and going on down the line from Charlie Leesman (two), Daniel Webb (one) and Donnie Veal (one).
*Webb recorded his first two strikeouts back-to-back.
*The White Sox are 2-14 against the Indians this year.
Record: 58-90 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights