Lane Thomas had three hits and four RBIs and Austin Hedges homered as the Cleveland Guardians defeated the host Chicago White Sox 6-4 on Wednesday afternoon to cap a three-game sweep.
Cleveland (84-62) extended its lead atop the American League Central to four games over the Royals ahead of Kansas City’s game later Wednesday.
Chicago (33-114) stretched its franchise-record home losing streak to 15 games. The White Sox must finish 10-5 or better to avoid matching the 1962 New York Mets for the most single-season losses in modern baseball history (120).
Five Guardians pitchers combined for 18 strikeouts. Cleveland’s bullpen contributed 4 2/3 innings of two-hit ball, with Nick Sandlin (8-0) tossing 1 1/3 scoreless frames.
Emmanuel Clase worked around a one-out single in the ninth for his 44th save, moving one ahead of St. Louis’ Ryan Helsley for the major league lead.
Chicago right-hander Davis Martin, who returned from 2022 Tommy John surgery in July, struggled through his shortest of eight starts this season while navigating some tough luck.
Martin (0-4) allowed five runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts over three innings. The lone extra-base hit he surrendered was Hedges’ leadoff home run in the third inning that made it 3-0 Guardians.
Thomas collected a pair of two-run infield singles. His first came with two outs and two men in scoring position in the first inning. Thomas beat the throw on a slow roller to third base and the White Sox had no play on a hustling Jose Ramirez, who scored from second.
Two Cleveland errors aided the White Sox, including a botched toss to second base on a would-be double-play ball. Boyd also balked in a run with the bases loaded.
Miguel Vargas drove in a run on a groundout after the Guardians couldn’t corral his foul pop-up, and Dominic Fletcher had a two-out RBI single that deflected off Boyd’s glove.
Boyd spaced four runs (one earned) and six hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked two and fanned nine.
Steven Kwan and Andres Gimenez had two hits for Cleveland. Chicago’s Lenyn Sosa and Bryan Ramos had two hits apiece.