September 12 – Lane Thomas had 3 hits and drove in 4 runs. Austin Hedges hit a home run and the Cleveland Guardians earned their third consecutive win by beating the host Chicago White Sox 6–4 on Wednesday afternoon.
Cleveland (84-62) leads the Kansas City Royals by 4 1/2 games in the American League Central Division.
Chicago (33-114) extended its franchise-record home losing streak to 15 games. The White Sox must finish 10-5 or better to avoid tying the 1962 New York Mets for the most single-season losses (120) in modern baseball history.
The Guardians’ five pitchers combined for 18 strikeouts. The Cleveland bullpen contributed 4 2/3 innings of two-hit ball, and Nick Sandlin (8-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
Emmanuel Class recorded his 44th save with a one-out single in the ninth inning, moving him one run ahead of St. Louis’ Ryan Helsley for the major league lead.
Chicago right-hander Davis Martin, who returned from 2022 Tommy John surgery in July, posted his lowest eight-game scoring streak of the season and struggled with some bad luck.
Martin (0-4) allowed five runs on six hits in three innings, including four walks and four strikeouts. The only extra-base hit he gave up was a leadoff home run off Hedges in the third inning, giving the Guardians a 3-0 lead.
Thomas had a two-run infield single. His first run came with two outs and two runs scored in the first inning. Thomas passed the ball to a slow grounder at third base and the White Sox had no answer, scoring Jose Ramirez at second base.
Cleveland led 5–0 in the bottom of the third quarter after Hedges’ homer and Thomas’ second infield hit. Chicago took advantage of the Guardians’ weak defense in the second half and got four points from starter Matthew Boyd.
Two Cleveland errors helped the White Sox, including an error from a pitch to second base on a double play. Boyd also missed a run despite the bases being loaded.
When Guardian couldn’t stop his foul pop-up, Miguel Vargas scored on a grounder and Dominique Fletcher hit a two-RBI single off Boyd.
Boyd allowed four runs (one earned) and six hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked twice and struck out nine.
Steven Cowan and Andres Gimenez had two hits each for Cleveland. Chicago’s Lenin Sosa and Brian Ramos each had two hits.
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