Another tough loss for White Sox
CLEVELAND - The White Sox staggered into the all-star break with yet another tough loss.
Javy Guerra gave up a 2-run homer in the eighth inning to Yan Gomes that erased the Sox' comeback in the top of the inning, sending Robin Ventura's squad to a 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.
After winning five of six, the White Sox have dropped four of their past five and are 45-51 on the season.
It's easy to see why Ventura wants to see more consistency from his team after the break.
"I'd like it to be better," Ventura said of the record. "We've had spurts where we play well, we've had spurts where we didn't. You wish you were in a better spot but you come back and try to clean that stuff up."
Gomes drove in all 3 Cleveland runs. His home run to right off Guerra (0-2) came after the White Sox scored 2 runs in the top of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.
Nick Swisher led off with a single before Gomes, who also had an RBI single in the second, hit a 1-1 pitch into the Sox' bullpen.
"A slider, came out, wasn't a very good one," Guerra said. "(Gomes) did what he was supposed to."
Trevor Bauer, whose 10 strikeouts were a career high, blanked the White Sox for 6⅔ innings.
In the eighth, though, with Bryan Shaw (4-1) on the mound, Conor Gillaspie singled with one out, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Gordon Beckham's single up the middle. After a groundout, Leury Garcia sent a roller to the right side. Second baseman Jason Kipnis tried to make a backhand stop near the bag, but the ball went under his glove and rolled into center field, allowing Beckham to score.
White Sox starter John Danks gave up only 1 run and escaped trouble often in his 7 innings, as the Indians loaded the bases twice on the left-hander.
In the second, Danks struck out the last two batters after a Carlos Sanchez error loaded the bases. He got Asdrubal Cabrera to ground out to end the sixth.
After an uneven first half of the season, Danks sees a promising team that needs to learn to win consistently.
"We know what we need to do," Danks said. "We need to go out there and play better baseball all the way around. This is a good group of guys that plays hard, plenty talented, but just gotta put it all together."
The White Sox offense wasn't without chances against Bauer. He allowed eight hits and had at least one base runner in every inning, but pitched out of trouble each time. The right-hander was pulled after All-Star Jose Abreu's two-out single in the seventh, but Marc Rzepczynski retired Adam Dunn.
• OF Adam Eaton (jammed left wrist) was out for the second straight day. ... With 3 hits on the day, Abreu, who leads the majors with 29 homers, has hit safely in 26 of his past 27 games, going 38-for-107 (.355). He also extended his hitting streak to eight games.