Kelly Shoppach’s three-run homer capped a five-run fourth against Chicago.
Kelly Shoppach’s three-run homer capped a five-run fourth against Chicago.
CHICAGO (AP) — Rookie Aaron Laffey out-pitched Mark Buehrle for his first major league win, and Kelly Shoppach’s three-run homer capped a five-run fourth Thursday night as the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 7-5.
The Indians won for just the seventh time in their last 17 games but increased their lead in the AL Central to 11⁄2 games over Detroit.
In his second major league start, 22-year-old lefty Laffey (1-1) worked 52⁄3 innings, allowing four runs and five hits, including a homer to A.J. Pierzynski.
Joe Borowski gave up a two-out homer to Juan Uribe, his 13th, before striking out Danny Richar in the ninth for his 32nd save in 36 chances.
Buehrle (9-7) was rocked for seven runs and eight hits in four-plus innings. He left after Jhonny Peralta’s RBI double in the fifth, the Indians’ third straight hit to open the inning. It was the left-hander’s shortest outing since his first start of the season on April 5, also against Cleveland, when he lasted just 11⁄3 innings after he was hit in the forearm by Ryan Garko’s line drive.
Fourth-inning rally
Victor Martinez opened the fourth with a hard one-hopper through the middle that deflected off Buehrle’s back leg for an infield single. Garko walked, Jason Michaels hit an RBI single and another run scored when Chicago third baseman Josh Fields misplayed Franklin Gutierrez’s hard hopper for an error.
Shoppach, in an 0-for-17 skid, followed with an opposite-field shot to right, his fifth homer of the season for a 5-3 lead. Josh Barfield, also in an 0-for-17 slump, then hit a double before Buehrle finally retired the side.
Pierzynski led off the sixth with his 11th homer to make it 7-4. Laffey retired the next two batters before being lifted after throwing 95 pitches.
The White Sox got two runs in the second on a walk and three straight two-out singles by Darin Erstad, Uribe and Richar. Jermaine Dye hit another two-out, run-scoring single in the third.
Notes
Martinez went 3-for-4 with a walk starting as the DH. Regular DH Travis Hafner was getting treatment for a sore left knee, an injury he got sliding into second Tuesday night that forced him out of Wednesday night’s game.