White Sox pummel Indians

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Their collapse complete, all the White Sox could do was watch from afar as another team celebrated winning the AL Central.

This wasn’t their year, but it wasn’t supposed to be.

Chicago’s comeback season came up short.

“It hurts,” said designated hitter Adam Dunn. “It stinks, but we have to look in the mirror and realize we did it to ourselves.”

Rookie Hector Santiago allowed just one hit in seven shutout innings to keep Chicago’s slim hopes alive for a while as the White Sox beat Cleveland 11-0 before they were eliminated from playoff contention when Detroit won the division on Monday night.

Santiago (4-1), who began the season as Chicago’s closer, struck out a season-high 10 and allowed only Shin-Soo Choo’s two-out single in the third.

With just their third win in 13 games, the second-place White Sox left the field with some hope, but not much. About an hour after the game, Chicago, which stumbled down the stretch after being in first place for 63 straight days, saw its chances vanish as the Tigers won 6-3 in Kansas City.

“It’s always frustrating, but I told everyone we should walk out of here with our heads held high,” White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “Nobody thought we would so anything this year, but to be in it until October 1st and have a chance, we did everything we could. We don’t have to look back and say we could have done this or we could have done that because at the end of the day, we gave everything we could and did everything we could possibly do.

“We were in the position we wanted to be in and it just didn’t work out.”

The White Sox scored four runs in the sixth off Corey Kluber (2-5), and added six in the ninth — four on Dayan Viciedo’s first career grand slam.