CLEVELAND — The battle for second place in the Central Division remained at a standstill Tuesday at Progressive Field.
Travis Hafner, right, is congratulated by third base coach Steve Smith after hitting a two run home run off Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Gavin Floyd during the first inning in the first baseball game of a doubleheader yesterday. (AP photo.)
With only runner-up status to play for the rest of the regular season, the Indians and White Sox broke even in a day-night doubleheader, Cleveland snapping a five-game home losing skid with a 4-3 win in the opener before falling 5-4 in the second game.
“One long day down and we’re in the same spot,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta, whose team maintained a 11⁄2-game lead over the third-place Sox in the standings.
The Indians used a trio of home runs — Travis Hafner, Asdrubal Cabrera and Kosuke Fukudome — to power their way to a win in Game 1.
Hafner hit a two-run homer in the opening inning, while Cabrera went deep in the fourth. Fukudome’s solo shot in the fifth wound up being the game-winning hit.
.
All of the long balls came off Chicago starter Gavin Floyd, who entered the day 2-0 with a 2.42 ERA in four starts against Cleveland this year.
“He’s had a lot of success against us, but any time you can score first, it gives you a good chance to win,” Hafner said. “I think we just got good pitches to hit and hit some out of the park.”
The power display backed a winning effort from Indians starter Fausto Carmona, who allowed three runs on seven hits over six innings. It was the right-hander’s first win at home since April 28 and his first overall since Aug. 17.
“Fausto did a nice job of battling the whole time,” Acta said. “He had a lot of traffic on the bases, but you have to give him credit, he didn’t crumble in any of those situations.”
Carmona, who began the year as the Indians’ ace, will likely get at least one more start before the season is over, but his body of work is all but complete. He is 7-15 with a 5.23 ERA in 31 starts.
“He’s been up and down, very much so,” Acta said. “Ever since he’s gotten back (from the disabled list), he’s been decent, but overall, he’s been up and down. We hope we don’t have to deal with the inconsistencies next year.”
The Indians led early in the night cap, scoring the first four runs of the game in the fourth inning. But they couldn’t hold the advantage, with Chicago scoring five unanswered runs — two in a game-changing sixth.
A bad feed from shortstop Jason Donald to second baseman Luis Valbuena on a failed double-play attempt proved pivotal in the sixth, with the following batter, Alejandro De Aza dropping a double in front of a sliding Shelley Duncan in left off reliever Rafael Perez to pull Chicago within a run.
The Sox scored twice in the seventh off Zach Putnam to forge ahead for good.
“We lost the game in the sixth inning,” Acta said. “We had to turn that double play.”
Donald made amends, offensively, accounting for four of Cleveland’s nine hits in the nightcap. Donald is batting .310 with a homer and six RBIs in 33 games since being promoted from Triple-A Columbus.
“He’s been really good since he’s come up,” Acta said. “He’s really given us a lift. He’s done a very nice job, offensively.”
Zach McAllister was recalled from Columbus on Monday to make his third spot start of the season for the Indians. It was much better than his first two, with the right-hander allowing two runs on six hits, while striking out four over 5 1/3 innings.
McAllister shut out Chicago on three hits over the first four innings.
“I thought I just executed pitches better,” McAllister said. “That was the biggest thing for me, executing and getting ahead in the count. That’s something I did in Triple-A. It was nice to be doing that on this level.”
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.
