Carrasco, Bourn lead Indians past White Sox

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Carlos Carrasco pitched into the seventh inning and Michael Bourn had two triples among his three hits, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night.

Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley each singled in a run for the Indians, who have won four of five and 11 of 16 overall to remain in the hunt for an AL wild card.

Alexei Ramirez had two hits for the White Sox, and John Danks (9-9) pitched six solid innings.

Carrasco (6-4) improved to 3-0 with a sparkling 0.73 ERA in four starts since he returned to the rotation. The right-hander also began the year as a starter, but then lost three of his first four outings.

He struck out seven in 62/3 innings while holding the White Sox to one run and four hits.

Cleveland grabbed the lead for good in the sixth. Jose Ramirez led off with a single and stole second. He then advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Kipnis’ base hit, giving the Indians a 2-1 advantage.

Brantley added an RBI single in the seventh.

Chicago closed to 3-2 on Adam Dunn’s RBI single in the eighth against Cody Allen, who struck out the next four batters for his 18th save in 19 attempts.

Carrasco retired 12 consecutive batters before Tyler Flowers singled with two outs in the seventh. He improved to 1-4 with a 6.00 ERA in eight career games against the White Sox.

White Sox rookie Jose Abreu hit a run-scoring single in the third, tying it at 1. It ran his total for the season to 97 RBIs, tied with Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton for the major league lead.

Cleveland jumped in front when Bourn tripled on the first pitch of the game and scored on Jose Ramirez’s grounder.