Indians-White Sox: Peralta's Five-for-Five Not Enough, Cleveland Loses 9-7

The Indians and Tom Petty have something in common: They are both free falling. After losing their third game in a row, and the first of a three-game set in Chicago, Cleveland is in real trouble.  As usual, the Tribe played just well enough to lose, falling 9-7 to the White Sox. 

Jeremy Sowers was roughed up yet again, making Fausto Carmona’s possible return after the all-star break the most important event of the year for the Indians. Between Sowers and Byrd, the Tribe has almost been guaranteed a hole the non-existent offense needs to dig themselves out of.

Cliff Lee will take the hill Tuesday in pretty much a must-win situation. The Indians have to take two of three from the White Sox. You must win series within your division.

The tribe got off to a good start. Ben Francisco drew a two out walk, and Jhonny-on-the-spot Peralta delivered a double, scoring Francisco and starting his huge  night at the plate. He ended the evening 5-for-5, getting over a third of the Indians' hits, with three doubles and a home run. 

Jim Thome got the run back in the bottom of the first, and then some. After an Orlando Cabrera single and a free pass issued to Brian Anderson, Thome hit his 16th homer of the year.

Just from watching the games, I’m assuming roughly 14 of those are against the Tribe. The actual number is five, but it certainly seems like more. Two came in the first meeting between the teams. The White Sox as a team have three players with multi-homerun games against the Tribe: Thome, Dye, and a recent addition to the list, Nick Swisher, who had two home runs in last night's game.

In the third, the Sox added five, giving them an 8-1 lead and sending Sowers to the showers, accountable for all eight runs in three innings of work. Swisher capped off the outburst with a three-run home run. He’d add the final White Sox run in the bottom of the sixth, homering again from the opposite side of the plate.

The Indians chipped away at the lead in the top of the fourth when Peralta registered his solo home run, making it 8-2 in favor of the Sox. 

In the sixth, the Tribe put up a pair of runs. This time, Peralta was on the front end of the scoring. He led off the inning with a double. Shin-Soo Choo singled him in, and stole second after a Casey Blake strikeout. Choo moved over to third on a throwing error and scored on a David Dellucci infield single. Ryan Garko struck out, ending the rally.

Peralta and the Indians would make some noise again in the ninth, scoring two but coming up short on the rally in the 9-7 loss.

All told, the Indians did have 14 hits to the White Sox' nine, but they could not overcome the huge early deficit.

Lee hopes to snap the three-game skid Tuesday night. He pits his 11-1 record and 2.34 ERA up against lefty John Danks. Danks is 5-4 on the season with a 2.62 ERA. 

Gametime is 8:11. 

These two teams have met ten times so far this season, and the White Sox have won seven of the ten.  The Tribe won the first two meetings and have gone 1-7 since.