Carlos Santana delivered a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cleveland Indians a 3-2 win in the series opener against the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.
27,912 fans were in attendance at Progressive Field and the Tribe did not disappoint. Trevor Bauer took the mound for Cleveland, while Jose Quintana started for Chicago.
The Tribe struck first, as Rajai Davis led off the bottom of the first with a single, stole his 18th base of the season (tied for the most in the AL) and was driven in by Francisco Lindor to make it a 1-0 game.
Bauer had a great outing, allowing his only run in the third inning, but his pitch count was already at 93 after five innings of work.
Manager Terry Francona allowed Bauer to go deep into the game, and the right-hander finished a seven inning outing with 115 pitches, which is a sign of Tito’s trust in the number five starter.
Bauer finished the night with nine strikeouts and three walks, only allowing four hits.
Relief pitcher Bryan Shaw came in and worked a difficult eighth inning, but kept the White Sox off the board, striking out Todd Frazier with runners at the corners to end the inning.
The Tribe finally got to Quintana in the bottom of the eighth, as Jason Kipnis delivered a clutch RBI double, scoring Michael Martinez from first base to give the Tribe a 2-1 lead.
Closer Cody Allen came in to try and earn his 14th save of the season, but the White Sox handed the right-hander his second blown save of the season, as Avisail Garcia drove in Brett Lawrie with an RBI double to tie the game at two apiece.
White Sox reliever Nate Jones tried to keep it a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, but Santana hit his 14th home run of the year to end the game. It was his fourth walk-off home run of his career.
Walk-off bomb for Santana! Indians win 3-2! pic.twitter.com/UKQIQLEZgL
— NEO Sports Insiders (@NEOSportsInside) June 18, 2016
Jones falls to 2-2 with the loss, while Allen (2-3) gets the win despite the blown save.
The Tribe improves to 36-30 on the season, while Chicago falls to 33-34. Cleveland holds a half game lead over Kansas City heading into Saturday. The two teams are back at it on Saturday night at 6:10 PM, as newly acquired James Shields (0-1, 16.71) takes the hill for Chicago and Danny Salazar (7-3, 2.19) gets the start for the Tribe.
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