Indians’ win streak hits three

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Danny Salazar tossed six scoreless innings and was backed by first-inning home runs from Nick Swisher and Mike Aviles, leading the Cleveland Indians past the Chicago White Sox 5-2 on Thursday night.

Salazar was coming off his worst start of the season in which he allowed five earned runs in 42/3 innings against Texas on May 16. He recovered to help the Indians take three of four from Chicago while winning their third straight for the first time this season.

Salazar (5-1) walked three, but struck out eight while giving up five hits to hand Chicago its first series loss at home.

John Danks (2-4) allowed five runs and six hits in 51/3 innings for the White Sox, who lost their third straight following a six-game winning streak.

Chicago’s Jose Abreu went 1 for 4 and extended his hitting streak to 16 games. Tyler Flowers hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth off Bryan Shaw to avoid the shutout.

Thanks to Cleveland’s four-run first, Salazar pitched with a lead all night. Following a run-scoring single by Michael Brantley and Ryan Raburn’s double-play grounder that allowed Carlos Santana to score, Swisher and Aviles hit back-to-back home runs against Danks. For Swisher, it was his first of the season and Aviles’ was his third.

Aviles had four hits. Santana, back in the lineup after missing four games due to back spasms, was 0 for 4 with an RBI.

Danks was unable to continue a stretch of strong starting pitching for Chicago, which had gotten nine quality starts in its last 13 games with an ERA of 3.01 over that span.

During the four games against Cleveland, the White Sox scored only eight times. That followed a three-game series in Oakland in which they scored 18 runs.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Indians: C Yan Gomes (right knee) is expected to catch Sunday for Cleveland. He was the designated hitter for Triple-A Columbus on Thursday night. ... LHP T.J. House (left shoulder) was activated from the 15-day disabled list and optioned to Triple-A Columbus.

White Sox: Abreu stayed in the game after he was tended to by manager Robin Ventura and a trainer after fouling a pitch off during the third inning. It appeared Abreu’s right hand was being checked.

UP NEXT

Indians: RHP Carlos Carrasco (4-4, 4.98) makes his ninth start of the season, going against Reds RHP Mike Leake (2-2, 3.62 ERA) today in the opener of a three-game interleague series in Cleveland.