Indians 6, White Sox 3: An ordinary loss

This game could've been sillier in a lot of regards.

John Danks looked set for a short day after giving up three runs and throwing more than 50 pitches through two innings. There were about four homers off the bat, but the wind kept all but one of them in the park (Lonnie Chisenhall's two-run homer in that second inning). Josh Tomlin walked as many batters today as he did in his first 50 innings this season (three).

And yet it remained a rather subdued Sunday afternoon. Tomlin pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings without ever retiring the side in order, and Danks kept the Indians off the board in his other four innings. The closest this game came to truly igniting was Zach Putnam's sixth inning, when he gave up three ringing doubles amid tons of loud contact, and three runs crossed the plate to allow the Indians to take a 6-1 lead. Otherwise, this was a pretty run-of-the-mill loss. Even an unpredictable strong wind couldn't generate more than some inefficient outfield routes.

The White Sox took forever to get going because they had a difficult time producing baserunners before two outs. Adam Eaton led off the game with a single, but was thrown out on a delayed steal attempt (not a bad idea, but Yan Gomes made a perfect throw). That more or less set the tone for a day full of the mildest of threats. The Sox didn't go 1-2-3 until the ninth, but in four consecutive innings, their first/only baserunner reached with two outs. That left them with one bullet to knock in a run, and they couldn't convert.

The offense finally sputtered to life in the seventh. Carlos Sanchez walked with one out, and Eaton followed with a double off the wall in left to put two runners in scoring position. Jose Abreu cashed them both in with a bloop single to make it a 6-2 game, but Kyle Crockett got Melky Cabrera to bounce into a double play to end the inning.

The Sox restarted in the eighth, when Trayce Thompson ripped a hanging Bryan Shaw slider to left for a double, then ran the other 180 feet on productive outs to make it a 6-3 game. Alas, Cody Allen ended any hope of a ninth-inning rally by retiring the side on seven pitches, including two three-pitch strikeouts.

Bullet points:

*Abreu's two RBIs were his 94th and 95th on the season. The wind knocked downgraded a homer to center into a double in the fourth inning, which would've been his 30th.

*He also drew a walk that home plate umpire Todd Tichenor was slow to give him. Third-base umpire Tim Welke had to confirm the count, so even the umps were in low gear.

*Frankie Montas struck out two and allowed an infield single in the seventh inning, which means he's not starting this week.

*The White Sox won the season series with the Indians 10-9.

Record: 70-78 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights