Floyd leads White Sox past Indians 6-3

June swoon?

It might have looked like that earlier in the month, but not now for the White Sox, who topped the Indians 6-3 in Cleveland on Monday night for their 11th victory in 15 games.

And certainly not for starting pitcher Gavin Floyd, who improved to 3-0 for the month after perhaps his best outing of the season, a 5-hit gem in which he held the Indians scoreless over 72/3 innings.

"Outstanding," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen told reporters. "That's a pretty good hitting ballclub and to shut them down was a tremendous job. The last 3 or 4 starts he has been great."

Floyd's only real trouble of the night came in the seventh, when the Indians loaded the bases with two outs. But Ryan Garko hit a grounder up the first-base line that Floyd fielded off the chalk and threw to first for the apparent final out.

"I knew I had to pick it up and throw it," Floyd said. "I took the gamble, picked it up and threw him out. I thought it was on the line. It all worked out."

Only after the ball originally was ruled foul by home-plate umpire Scott Barry. But after a meeting of the minds, the umpiring crew reversed the call and Floyd and Co. had escaped out of the jam.

Even Garko didn't protest too much.

"I'm sure they got it right. Whatever," he said. "Those guys usually get it right."

In the ninth inning, newly acquired Cleveland reliever Chris Perez (traded for Mark DeRosa) hit Alexei Ramirez in the head and then followed that up by plunking Jermaine Dye.

"Obviously, not the best first impression," Perez said.

The two hit batters helped the Sox add 4 insurance runs to improve to 38-38.

Ramirez indicated afterward that he should be able to play Tuesday night, and Dye remained in the game and will be in the lineup Tuesday as well, according to Guillen.

Gordon Beckham went 3-for-3 with 2 RBI on Monday, and the defense was sterling all night, but the story was Floyd, who is 4-1 with a 1.39 ERA in his last 8 starts.

"I think this kid has turned the corner," Guillen said.

Mike Spellman's game tracker

The grade: A- Would have been an A+ save for some late-game relief issues. But the good news for the Sox was any potential letdown following an emotional weekend series against the Cubs never materialized thanks in large part to Gavin Floyd (6-5), who outdueled Cleveland's Carl Pavano.

Scary x 2: The ninth inning got off to a frightening start when Alexei Ramirez was beaned in the left ear flap by Indians reliever Chris Perez and left the game as a precaution. The next batter, Jermaine Dye was also hit by Perez but remained in the game. It was Perez's Indians debut after being acquired in the Mark DeRosa trade.

Defense never rests: The Sox defense sparkled Monday night with fine plays by Dewayne Wise, Gavin Floyd, Paul Konerko and a couple by Gordon Beckham.

Walk this way: Jim Thome's walk in the ninth was the 1,599th of his career, tying him with Hall-of-Famer Stan Musial for 12th on the all-time list.