CLEVELAND: The Indians blew a lead in the top of the ninth, but Carlos Santana hit a ball far enough in the bottom of the ninth that it didn’t matter.
Santana led off the ninth by belting a walk-off home run to center field to give the Indians a 3-2 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night. It was the Indians’ third walk-off win of the season and snapped a three-game losing streak.
In the top of the ninth, Cody Allen took the mound with the Indians leading 2-1. But he allowed back-to-back doubles to Brett Lawrie and Avisail Garcia that tied it 2-2, as the team’s bullpen woes continued and nearly wasted a strong outing by Trevor Bauer.
An inning earlier, with the score tied 1-1, Jason Kipnis came away with the type of hit the Indians lacked in their three-game sweep at the hands of the Kansas City Royals earlier this week.
Facing White Sox starter Jose Quintana, Michael Martinez singled to lead off the eighth inning. That brought up Kipnis, who roped a double to center field to score Martinez from first and gave the Indians the timely hit they had been missing while their lead in the American League Central was decimated in Kansas City.
In the top of the eighth, struggling setup man Bryan Shaw worked into trouble but escaped with the 1-1 tie intact, striking out Todd Frazier with runners on the corners.
It was all finished by Santana’s game-clinching home run.
Bauer and Quintana battled for most of the night, both delivering strong performances but with different back stories.
Quintana has been among the American League’s more consistent starters this season, owning a sub-3.00 ERA despite a losing record while he’s struggled to get any consistent run support.
Bauer has slowly moved in the right direction, albeit somewhat quietly, with Chris Gimenez acting as his de-facto personal catcher. Bauer entered Friday night with a 2.83 ERA in his last four starts, as he’s seen his season arc from opening the year in the bullpen to filling in for Carlos Carrasco when he strained his hamstring to now performing on a higher level.
Bauer allowed just one run on four hits and three walks and struck out nine in seven innings pitched Friday night. Quintana went 7⅔, giving up two runs on seven hits and striking out six.
Bauer’s only run allowed came on a misplay in right field by Lonnie Chisenhall. In the third inning, Adam Eaton ripped a line drive that Chisenhall dived for but couldn’t reach. The ball rolled all the way to the wall and instead of being a single, Eaton ended up on third and then scored on a ground ball to get the White Sox (33-34) on the board.
That tied it 1-1 after the Indians took an early 1-0 lead in the first when Rajai Davis singled, stole his 18th base of the season and scored on Francisco Lindor’s RBI single to center field.
The Indians (36-30) improved to 19-10 against divisional opponents and 27-7 this season when scoring first.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ.