Indians 3, White Sox 1: Jose Quintana saddled with traditional effort

Poor Jose Quintana and Corey Kluber pitched equivalent games.

Guess which one took the loss.

Their lines couldn’t be much closer:

• Quintana: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 0 HR, 55 Game Score
• Kluber: 6 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR, 56 Game Score

The difference? Jose Abreu threw high and wide to second after Quintana picked off Rajai Davis in the third inning. Davis reached with a leadoff walk, but should have been retired for the inning’s first out. Instead, he scored on a Mike Napoli double that hugged the third-base line to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.

Even though Kluber wasn’t particularly sharp — neither pitcher recorded a 1-2-3 inning — and even though four of the White Sox’ seven hits went for extra bases, they could only touch up Cleveland’s staff for one run, which came on a Justin Morneau solo shot in the sixth inning.

That was Kluber’s final inning of work, and the last best chance the Sox had at tying the game. For one, Matt Albers came in and gave up a leadoff double that came around to score on Dan Jennings’ watch, turning it into a two-run game. The other reason: Andrew Miller recorded six outs on 16 pitches, and Cody Allen pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 23rd save.

Bullet points:

*The Indians are 8-2 against the Sox this year, and this was their seventh win in a row over Chicago.

*Omar Narvaez went hitless for the first time in his nine MLB games after an infield single was taken away from him after a review.

*Carson Fulmer was optioned to Triple-A after the game, making room for a corresponding move (including but not limited to Anthony Ranaudo, who was announced as Wednesday's starter).

Record: 56-62 | Box score | Highlights