CHICAGO — Garrett Crochet struck out a career-high 11 in six shutout innings, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Friday night for their third consecutive victory.
Taking advantage of a costly error on second baseman Gabriel Arias, Chicago improved to 8-6 since its ugly 3-22 start. Korey Lee and Paul DeJong hit back-to-back homers in the seventh, and Andrew Vaughn went deep in the eighth for his first of the season.
Crochet (3-4) allowed five hits and walked none in his second straight win. Jordan Leasure got four outs for his second save.
Crochet threw 72 of his 97 pitches for strikes. The big left-hander has a 1.59 ERA in three starts since a personal three-game losing streak.
"I know that I've got good stuff and I've been feeling really confident with it," he said. "Just a matter of trying to get strike one, strike two and that's why the strikeouts were able to get up tonight."
Cleveland lost for the third time in four games. It leads the AL Central by a half-game over Minnesota, which beat Toronto 3-2 for its third straight win.
José Ramírez and Tyler Freeman homered, but the Guardians went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and left five runners on base. They went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position in a 3-2 loss in the opener of the four-game series on Thursday night.
Will Brennan was stranded after a leadoff triple in the third. Ramón Laureano struck out swinging with runners on the corners for the final out of the sixth.
"Credit to (Crochet)," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "We've got to do a better job of battling, but at the end of the day, I thought we fought, and we fought back again like we always do."
Cleveland right-hander Carlos Carrasco (2-3) permitted five runs, three earned, and six hits in seven innings.
Chicago went ahead to stay with three runs in the fifth. With runners on second and third and the infield in, Arias mishandled Nicky Lopez's one-out bouncer to second base. Lee and DeJong scampered home on the play, and Tommy Pham added an RBI single.
Lopez's grounder went off the top of Arias' glove.
"It looked like he may have taken his eye off the ball to see where the runner was just a split-second early," Vogt said. "Obviously a big play at the moment. Gabby's a phenomenal defender. Just made an error."
Ramírez's ninth homer — a two-run shot to left off Tanner Banks — trimmed Cleveland's deficit to 5-3 in the eighth. But Vaughn connected in the bottom half, providing another insurance run for Leasure.
"Pitching and defense today was the key to this ballgame," White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "And tacking on runs was really critical, too."
UP NEXT
Triston McKenzie (2-2, 3.97 ERA) pitches for Cleveland on Saturday night and fellow right-hander Mike Clevinger (0-1, 13.50 ERA) starts for Chicago. McKenzie has a 2.81 ERA over his last three starts, but he is looking for his first win since April 19. Clevinger pitched two-plus innings in his first start of the season with the White Sox on Monday at Tampa Bay.