The Indians came out of the gate smoking tonight, getting homers from the first two hitters of the game when Kosuke Fukudome and Jason Kipnis went deep, and when Chicago came back and tied the game on a Juan Pierre RBI base hit and a subsequent error at third base in the fifth, Cleveland took the lead back immediately in the bottom half when Fukudome drove in two more with a single.
After that the Indians never looked back, scoring the final nine runs of the game to beat the White Sox 11-2, earning a split in this four-game series and allowing the Tribe to remain in second place in the AL Central, a game and a half ahead of Chicago.
Asdrubal Cabrera drove in five runs in his last two at-bats, and his three-run homer in the seventh put the game out of reach at 8-2. But more importantly, Cabrera’s blast set a new single-season record of 25 homers for an Indians shortstop.
That makes two memorable home runs of late, after Carlos Santana set the Cleveland record for homers by a pinch-hitter.
The beneficiary of the fine offensive night was Jeanmar Gomez, who won his fifth straight start in improving to 5-2.
Gomez went six innings and surrendered just one earned run. Jeanmar gave up four hits.
Joe Smith, Zach Putnam and Corey Kluber all pitched a scoreless inning for The Good Guys.
The Indians had 12 hits, with Cabrera leading the way with three. Besides the production from Kipnis, Cabrera and Fukudome, Grady Sizemore and Matt LaPorta also had RBIs.
A crowd of 21,487 turned out to watch the Indians end their season series against the White Sox at 7-11.
Now Minnesota comes to town for four games in the next three days, with a day-night doubleheader on Saturday.