Indians ace Corey Kluber continued his recent dominance, outdueling left-hander Jose Quintana to lift the Tribe past the White Sox, 3-1, on Tuesday night at Progressive Field. First-place Cleveland has now won seven straight games over Chicago. In all seven games, the White Sox have scored three runs or fewer.
With the win and a Tigers loss, the Indians increased their American League Central lead to six games.
Kluber dealt with baserunners all night, but still spun six innings of one-run ball to win his fourth consecutive start. The right-hander’s lone mistake was a solo shot from White Sox slugger Justin Morneau, which came in the sixth. Kluber struck out seven while walking two and has now posted a 1.65 ERA over his last seven turns. Andrew Miller tossed two perfect innings of relief, before Cody Allen nailed down his 23rd save.
“The ball is coming out of his hand so crisp,” Indians manager Terry Francona said of Kluber. “And they made him work. He had to pitch out of some jams. They got his pitch count up. But, other than he threw two breaking balls in a row to Morneau that he hit for the home run … he looks like the tank’s full, which is really good for us.”
“You know he has the movement going in on a lefty, but tonight, the biggest one is he’s moving it back over,” said White Sox manager Robin Ventura. “He’s throwing at the front hip, it’s coming back on the inner half, and that’s the one you freeze for a second and you can’t pull the trigger on it. Really good movement. You’re seeing a really good matchup with both guys kind of controlling what’s going on out there.”
Quintana was on the hook for the loss, despite a solid showing. The lefty is still seeking that elusive 10th victory after allowing two runs on seven hits across six frames.
The Indians scored a run off Quintana early, with back-to-back one-out doubles in the first by Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor. Mike Napoli plated the second run off Quintana with an RBI single in the third, extending the longest active hit streak in the Major Leagues to 16 games. Kipnis, who had three hits, added an insurance RBI single in the seventh off Dan Jennings.
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