Tribe’s Talbot tames White Sox for first win

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Mitch Talbot pitched a complete game for his first career win and still got creamed — by his Cleveland Indians teammates.

Talbot (1-0) was slathered with a shaving-cream pie in the face after beating the Chicago White Sox 6-2 Friday night.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Talbot said — about the win, not the pie. “I’m stunned, at a loss for words.”

The right-hander retired 12 in a row after Paul Konerko snapped an 0-for-12 slump with his fourth homer leading off the second inning. Acquired in December from Tampa Bay, the 26-year-old gave up six hits and struck out two without walking a batter.

“It’s a combination of not swinging the bat well and him pitching good,” Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Talbot got 17 groundball outs, including two with a runner on third and Cleveland clinging to a 3-2 lead in the sixth.

Luis Valbuena hit a two-run homer in a three-run fourth and the Indians scored three unearned runs off Mark Buehrle (2-1) after an error by third baseman Mark Teahen in the sixth in a game that took a brisk 2 hours, 4 minutes.

“It hopped up more than I thought it would,” Teahen said of Lou Marson’s grounder that glanced off his glove and scored two runs. “It definitely didn’t help.”

Talbot’s outing comes a day after David Huff went the distance in a 3-2 win against Texas, giving Cleveland its first back-to-back complete game victories since Chad Ogea and Charles Nagy did it in September 1996.

Talbot used a four-pitch mix to baffle White Sox hitters, retiring 21 of the last 23 batters he faced.

“He had a good sinker and cutter, threw a few sliders and a couple changeups,” pitching coach Tim Belcher said. “He’d like to have one changeup back. That’s the one Konerko hit.”

Austin Kearns’ two-out RBI single in the fourth gave Cleveland its first run off Buehrle in 18 1-3 innings, since Aug. 7. Valbuena followed with a two-run homer. He has two homers this season, off All-Stars Buehrle and Justin Verlander of Detroit. The homer off Verlander was a grand slam.