Indians 2, White Sox 0: No support for Scott Carroll

Following up the feel-good start of the season, Scott Carroll was basically as effective against the Indians as he was against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Alas, nobody can say the same about his supporting cast.

Carroll didn't allow an earned run over his six innings, but two unearned runs did cross the plate -- and that was two more runs than his offense could provide. Two starts in, Carroll has a beautiful 0.68 ERA and an unremarkable 1-1 record to show for it.

The Indians scored the only run they needed in the second inning when Marcus Semien troubled tracking a windblown infield fly and dropped it in front of the mound. Instead of recording the third out, Semien's error allowed Lonnie Chisenhall to score from third (amended), which would have been a nice strand for Carroll.

In the fifth, Tyler Flowers' throwing error on Jose Ramirez's swinging bunt put the leadoff runner on second. Carroll retired the next three batters, but the first out was voluntary (sac bunt), and the second was productive (sac fly), giving the Indians a little bit of insurance just in case the White Sox offense could get going against Justin Masterson.

They couldn't. Masterson pitched well, allowing just five hits and a walk, and he also benefited from some good fortune.

He wobbled in the fifth inning, as a Chisenhall throwing error put Dayan Viciedo on second to start the inning. After striking out Alexei Ramirez, he walked Jordan Danks and plunked Tyler Flowers to load the bases. Marcus Semien followed and hit a sharp, low liner to the right side, only to see Nick Swisher hit the ground and pick the ball before it hit the dirt. With Flowers running (and it's hard to fault him), Swisher could step on first himself for the inning ending double play.

An inning later, Masterson allowed a leadoff double to Adam Dunn, only to watch Dunn retire himself by trying to advance to third on a grounder in front of him. Asdrubal Cabrera threw to third, and the throw beat Dunn by plenty to defang the rally.

And in the eighth, the Sox made one last run at the Indians when David Murphy couldn't catch Gordon Beckham's slicing liner in the right field corner. The double put runners on second and third with two outs, bringing the guy the Sox wanted, Jose Abreu, to the plate. Unfortunately, the Indians also had who they'd want on the mound in Cody Allen, and Allen got him to chase three sliders to effectively put the game away before it became official.

The shame is, if the White Sox infield played as well as the outfield -- usually an OK bet -- this game still might be going. Dayan Viciedo saved Carroll at least one run with an inning-ending diving catch in right in the third, and Jordan Danks stifled the rally by running down a Michael Brantley laser in deep center, keeping runners on first and second.

Instead, Carroll only saw a strange kind of brilliance from Abreu, who snagged a hard Chisenhall grounder with one out in the eighth. He tried to flip the ball to Carroll, who was covering, but he couldn't get the ball out from the webbing, so he pulled a Terry Mulholland and flipped the mitt instead.

Bullet points:

*Robin Ventura lost a challenge because home plate umpire Chris Guccione let Cabrera talk him into thinking he got hit by a Carroll pitch.

*The Sox went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and the Indians went 0-for-6.

*The Indians went through an entire game without striking out for the first time since April 17, 2006 -- a streak of 1,310 games.

Record: 14-17 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights