Carlos Carrasco pitches superbly in his season's debut, but bullpen can't hold lead as Indians lose to White Sox, 6-4.
White Sox's Manny Ramirez grounds out in his first time up with Chicago against Cleveland Indians' Carlos Carrasco in the first inning on Sept. 1, 2010 at Progressive Field. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- This time, Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco made the Sept. 1 season's debut work for him. The payoff should have been his first major-league victory.
Instead, reliever Justin Germano gas-canned it.
Paul Konerko hit a two-out, three-run homer in the eighth inning as the White Sox defeated the Indians, 6-4 [Box score], Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field.
The White Sox (73-60) swept the three-game series, using late homers in each. Friday night, Brent Lillibridge's homer off Rafael Perez sparked a four-run 11th inning in a 10-6 victory. Saturday night, A.J. Pierzynski's three-run shot off Frank Herrmann in the ninth delivered a 4-3 conquest.
The Indians have lost four in a row. They slipped to 8-7 against the White Sox.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and runners on first and second, Shin-Soo Choo struck out swinging against Chris Sale. Sale, a rookie lefty, earned his first major-league save.
Carrasco, poised and confident from the outset, carried a 4-1 lead into the eighth. Alexei Ramirez hit a one-out homer, jerking a 1-0 fastball over the wall in left. After Carrasco walked Juan Pierre on four pitches, Tribe manager Manny Acta signaled for lefty Rafael Perez.
Carrasco received a loud ovation as he walked to the dugout.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen pinch-hit Carlos Quentin for Omar Vizquel. Quentin flied to right. Acta then hooked Perez for righty Germano. Pierre gambled with a steal of second on a 3-0 pitch to Rios. Rios walked on five pitches.
Konerko launched Germano's 1-1 breaking pitch onto the home-run porch. It was Konerko's 33rd homer of the season, five coming against Cleveland.
The White Sox tacked on one in the ninth against Jensen Lewis.
Carrasco, Lewis and Jordan Brown were promoted from Class AAA Columbus earlier in the day. Rosters can expand to 40 beginning Sept. 1.
Carrasco gave up three runs on six hits in 7 1 /3 innings. He walked one and struck out four. He threw 65 of 101 pitches for strikes.
On Sept. 1, 2009, Carrasco made his major-league debut in Detroit. It did not go well. He gave up nine hits -- including three homers -- and six runs in an 8-5 loss to the Tigers. Carrasco was burned on largely straight fastballs as he tried to throw hard, harder and hardest. His off-speed stuff was ineffective.
Carrasco finished the month with an 0-4 record and 8.87 ERA in five starts.
A different pitcher took the mound Wednesday. Carrasco was in control throughout, commanding a mid-90s four-seamer, low-90s two-seamer, hard slider and curve.
Rios's homer gave Chicago a 1-0 lead. The Indians tied it in the third. Jason Donald drew a leadoff walked and stole second. Chris Gimenez failed to advance him by grounding to short. Donald moved to third on Michael Brantley's grounder and scored on Asdrubal Cabrera's single to right.
The Indians took a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Jayson Nix squibbed a one-out single past the mound toward second. With Brown batting, Nix took off for second. Catcher Ramon Castro's throw was in time to shortstop Alexei Ramirez, who applied the tag, but Nix's back leg knocked the ball out of the glove. Ramirez was charged with an error.
Brown rolled a single through the right side, Nix scoring easily thanks in part to a terrible throw by right fielder Andruw Jones.
The Indians scored twice in the fifth off White Sox reliever Tony Pena. Starter Freddy Garcia had exited after four innings because of a stiff lower back. One of the runs scored on Asdrubal Cabrera's double-play grounder. A Nix infield single/White Sox throwing error made it 4-1.
Oh, by the way: Manny Ramirez made his White Sox debut. It was highly uneventful. He went 1-for-3 and was hit by a pitch. He started at DH and batted fifth.