Andres Gimenez clubbed a go-ahead, two-run homer in the fifth to lift the Cleveland Guardians to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series.
After Steven Kwan opened the inning with a single, Gimenez, who began his at-bat by trying to bunt Kwan over to second, got hold of a 2-2 fastball from Mike Clevinger. He pulled it over the wall in right for his 10th homer of the season.
Gimenez added a pair of doubles for the Guardians, who also got two hits from Oscar Gonzalez.
Cleveland starter Logan Allen (5-4) allowed two runs on four hits in six innings to earn the win. He walked four and struck out five.
Emmanuel Clase worked around a two-out walk in the ninth to earn his 29th save of the season.
Andrew Vaughn went 2-for-4 and Elvis Andrus had an RBI double for Chicago, which has lost five straight games and 11 of its last 13.
Clevinger (4-5) gave up four runs (three earned) on eight hits in five innings. He walked one and fanned two.
Jose Ramirez ripped an RBI single in the bottom of the first to open the scoring. Cleveland doubled its advantage an inning later when Myles Straw hit a two-out single and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
The White Sox quickly drew even in the third thanks to Andrus' run-scoring double and Andrew Benintendi's bases-loaded walk. Chicago left three runners stranded, though, as Allen struck out Luis Robert Jr. and Vaughn before getting Yoan Moncada to ground out to end the inning.
Brayan Rocchio opened the fourth with a double, but he ended up being ruled out at second following a challenge by the White Sox. Guardians manager Terry Francona disagreed with the call and came out to argue, leading to his ejection.
Chicago went just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base.
--Field Level Media
Chi. White Sox | Cleveland | |
Mike Clevinger | Player | Logan Allen |
Loss | W/L | Win |
5.0 | IP | 6.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 5 |
8 | Hits | 4 |
5.40 | ERA | 3.00 |
Chi. White Sox | Cleveland | |
Andrew Vaughn | Player | Andres Gimenez |
2 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 1 |
3 | TB | 8 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Chi. White Sox | 7 | 0 | 9 | .226 | 23 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
Cleveland | 9 | 1 | 16 | .281 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 |