White Sox beat Tribe, Perez

By Paul Hoynes

Cleveland Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND

The last meeting between closer Chris Perez and Alex Rios ended in shouts and anger. Tuesday night the rematch ended in victory for Rios and the White Sox.

Rios tripled home pinch-runner Brent Lillibridge to break a 3-3 tie in the 10th inning as Chicago beat the Indians, 5-3, at Progressive Field.

“What happened in Chicago was just part of the game,” said Perez. “This is totally different. We didn’t say any words tonight. I just made a bad pitch and left it out over the plate and he did what he was supposed to do — hit it in the gap.”

The loss ended the Indians’ three-game winning streak. The victory ended a three-game losing streak for Chicago.

On May 3 at U.S. Cellular Field, Perez retired Rios on a grounder to short for the final out in the Indians’ 7-5 victory. Perez shouted in excitement when he saw Rios’ grounder headed to short. Rios was displeased and yelled at Perez when he reached first base.

Except for a few quotes in the paper and on the Internet the next day, that was the end of it.

Perez (0-1) started the 10th. He gave up a single to Paul Konerko, who was replaced by Lillibridge as a pinch-runner. A.J. Pierzynski popped up, but Rios tripled to the wall in right-center field to score Lillibridge.

Alexei Ramirez scored Rios on a grounder to second.

Perez had allowed one run in his previous 13 appearances. It was the first time he’s allowed more than one run in an outing since the season opener against Toronto on April 5.

Perez had problems entering games with the score tied last year.

“You can’t let the other team beat you with your seventh guy out of the pen instead of your best arm,” said manager Manny Acta. “It gets noticed when he doesn’t get it done, but you have to do it. Come September or playoff time, I’m not going to be putting the seventh guy out of the pen in that situation.”

The White Sox took a 2-0 lead in the first off Justin Masterson. Gordon Beckham singled with one out and went to third on Adam Dunn’s double off the wall in right center that Michael Brantley should have caught. Dunn came into the game hitting .389 (7-for-18) against Masterson.