Surging Indians win 15th time in 18

Cleveland benefited from the wildness of Chicago pitchers in the 8-3 victory.

CHICAGO (AP) — Paul Byrd got his 15th victory and Travis Hafner had three RBIs as the surging Cleveland Indians won for the 15th time in 18 games by beating the Chicago White Sox 8-3 on Tuesday night.

Byrd (15-6) allowed three runs and six hits in 6 1-3 innings, including two homers by Juan Uribe, as Cleveland increased its lead in the AL Central over Detroit to 61⁄2 games after the Tigers split a doubleheader with Texas.

Byrd had a career-best 17 wins for Kansas City in 2002.

Cleveland benefited by the wildness of Chicago pitchers, collecting 10 walks, including two with the bases loaded in a three-run sixth when the Indians broke a 3-3 tie.

Blake doubles

Casey Blake doubled to start the sixth against reliever Lance Broadway (0-1) who was replaced one out later by Matt Thornton. Grady Sizemore singled and Asdrubal Cabrera hit an RBI double when White Sox center fielder Jerry Owens misjudged his fly ball near the fence.

Thornton then walked Hafner to load the bases and Ryan Garko to force in a run and give the Indians a 5-3 lead. Another struggling reliever, Mike MacDougal, walked Jhonny Peralta, bringing in the third run of the inning. Cleveland tacked on two more in the seventh on Kelly Shoppach’s grounder and a run-scoring single by Haffner.

Garko hit his 18th homer to give the Indians a 1-0 lead in the second. Uribe tied the game twice, with a solo shot in the second and a two-run drive in the fourth, his 17th and 18th homers of the season.

Cleveland moved ahead 3-1 in the third and knocked out John Danks, who hit Shoppach and walked Sizemore before giving up a two-run single to Hafner.

Byrd shut the White Sox out on four hits 10 days ago at Jacobs Field and is 3-0 against them in five starts this season. He also is 8-2 in is career against the White Sox, including 4-0 at U.S. Cellular Field.

Danks is winless in nine starts since his last win July 16. Making his first start since Aug. 30, he lasted 22⁄3 innings — his shortest outing of the season — and gave up three hits, three runs and four walks.

Notes

Chicago’s 84th loss of the season came hours after manager Ozzie Guillen got a contract extension through 2012. ... Chicago’s Jim Thome, two homers shy of 500, was 0-for-4. ... Cabrera, who had a tie-breaking homer in Monday night’s win, has a 10-game hitting streak.

Monday

CHICAGO — Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera hit a tie-breaking two-run homer in the seventh inning and Fausto Carmona pitched seven solid innings to lead the Indians over the White Sox, 6-2.

The game was delayed by rain after the seventh inning for 2 hours and 23 minutes. It resumed just before midnight and the last two innings were played before a few hundred fans.

Trailing 2-1 on a rain-soaked field, Kenny Lofton led off the seventh inning for Cleveland by reaching on a bunt. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Ben Francisco’s single to left off White Sox starter Gavin Floyd (1-3). With two outs, Cabrera homered off reliever Mike Myers to put the Indians ahead 4-2.

Carmona (16-8) continued his spectacular season. He allowed two runs, one earned, and three hits before being forced to leave by the long delay.