CLEVELAND _ The Indians seemed to go several weeks without much breaking their way. On Sunday, it seemed to turn around in their wild, come-from-behind win over the Houston Astros in 14 innings.
Then the Chicago White Sox came to town and offered three opportunistic breaks in one inning, and the Indians capitalized on them in a 9-6 win on Monday afternoon at Progressive Field.
The Indians (27-25) entered the bottom of the fifth inning trailing 5-2, but the White Sox (16-35) proceeded to commit three errors and just missed a catch on the potential third out on a blooper down the right-field line. The Indians made them pay foe all of it, converting the extra chances into a five-run rally that gave them a 7-5 lead.
Yan Gomes, leading off the inning, reached because of two errors. Gomes first popped up a ball that was dropped by White Sox catcher Alfredo Gonzalez and then sent a grounder to the left side that was fielded by shortstop Tim Anderson and thrown away. Francisco Lindor singled and Michael Brantley walked to load the bases with two outs in an inning that already should have been finished.
Edwin Encarnacion blooped a ball down the right-field line that was chased after by three White Sox defenders, all with an extended run to reach it. Right fielder Daniel Palka tried to haul it in with a sliding catch but had it carom off his glove. Instead of an inning-ending grab, Encarnacion ended up with a bases-clearing double to tie it at 5, with all three runs scoring on a ball hit to shallow right field.
"That's huge, man, especially with two outs like that," Yonder Alonso said. "The guys were running hard. Guys are playing hard. They're giving everything they've got. It says a lot about the guys that we have in here. A lot of guys that don't give up. A lot of guys that are busting it every single day and that's special."
Alonso followed with a double to deep center field to score Encarnacion and give the Indians the lead. But, the miscues weren't finished. Melky Cabrera grounded a ball to second baseman Yoan Moncada, who booted it to allow Alonso to score.
From there, the Indians cruised. Lindor singled home a run in the sixth and Encarnacion belted a solo home run, his 12th of the season, in the seventh. Michael Brantley also went 1-for-4 and extending his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest active streak in the majors.
After two terrific starts this season, Plutko was roughed up on Monday for five earned runs on six hits in five innings to go with two strikeouts. The good news for the Indians, though, is the bullpen was able to hold the lead.
Tyler Olson, Evan Marshall, Neil Ramirez and Ben Taylor combined to allow one run in four innings, avoiding another meltdown and collectively putting together the kind of day for which the Indians have been waiting.
"Always looking for positives," Indians manager Terry Francona. "That's what we're here for. The guys that were down, they were going to be down anyway. But it's nice to have a day where they don't pick up a baseball and hopefully get a little bit more back in line where you feel like you can cover a game normally."
