When you wake up and look at the pitching probables for the a day full of games, it's always exciting to see a matchup like Corey Kluber against Chris Sale. Kluber was absolutely fantastic in his last matchup, striking out 18 batters. Chris Sale has been the consistent ace of the White Sox staff for a few years now and was coming out firing. So pretty much everyone knew this was going to be a low scoring game from the beginning.
Corey Kluber had the strikeout machine working early on, as he struck out the side in the bottom of the first, much to the dismay of Adam Eaton, Melky Cabrera, and Jose Abreu. He added two more to start the second inning getting Adam LaRoche and Avisail Garcia. Kluber was hot and he was going to be tough to beat, that was for certain.
To start the top of the third inning, the Indians Catcher, Roberto Perez doubled to right field, and with runs at a premium, they sacrificed him to third and then Jose Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly to score Perez and give the Indians a one run edge.
Corey Kluber was still on fire for several innings, and then Adam Eaton avenged his opening strikeout with a triple in the bottom of the sixth. Kluber would strike out Cabrera and Abreu again, but when pitching to Abreu he had a wild pitch and Eaton would score from third in order to tie the game at one.
The starters kept shutting down the bats and then Chris Sale was pulled before the top of the ninth inning in a tie game, he had gone 8 innings with 7 strikeouts and only allowed 4 hits and 2 walks. Corey Kluber would wind up going 9 innings and struck out 12 with 5 hits and 1 walk. They both only gave up 1 run and so they both get a no decision, even though they both pitched well enough to get a win.
David Robertson came in for Sale and didn't let anyone get on base in the ninth, and then Zach Duke came in and didn't let any Indians get on base in the tenth inning either. It just seemed like the bats were not going to wake up for Cleveland.
But they wouldn't get another opportunity either, as Zach McAllister came in to replace Kluber and walked Garcia who was pulled for a pinch runner in J.B. Shuck. Connor Gillaspie would get a single to put runners on first and second with no outs. McAllister had appeared to settle down as he got Alexei Ramirez to pop out and Geovany Soto to strikeout, but Carlos Sanchez would get the RBI single to left to score Shuck and the White Sox won the opening game of the series.
The Cleveland Indians (14-23) will return again tomorrow for game 2 of the four game series. Trevor Bauer (2-1, 3.67 ERA) will take the mound for Cleveland, and he will face Jose Quintana (2-3, 4.39 ERA) of the Chicago White Sox (18-17). Game time is 8:10 PM ET. It should be another excellent game.