CHICAGO — White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is happy his team got a big hit to avoid a sweep at home. Now he is hoping to get his ace back on track.

Carlos Quentin hit a go-ahead two-run single in the seventh inning to lead the White Sox to a 8-7 comeback victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.

Paul Konerko hit a two-run homer, his 17th of the season, and Alex Rios was 2 for 3 with three runs scored for the White Sox, who came back from an early 6-2 deficit to improve to 2-4 on a nine-game homestand.

The White Sox also got Mark Buehrle off the hook after he had another rough outing.

J.J. Putz (1-2) struck out two in a scoreless seventh to get the win, and Bobby Jenks pitched a perfect ninth for his ninth save in 10 chances.

With the score tied at six in the seventh, Juan Pierre led off with a single off Indians reliever Tony Sipp (0-2). Sipp was lifted after a sacrifice bunt by Omar Vizquel.

More photos below.

Indians reliever Jensen Lewis came in and walked Rios and Konerko to load the bases. Indians manager Manny Acta brought in left-hander Rafael Perez, who got Mark Kotsay to fly out to shallow center field. Then with two outs, Quentin hit Perez’s 0-2 pitch up the middle to score Pierre and Rios and give the White Sox an 8-6 lead.

“That’s what a good team does. Kotsay couldn’t do it. Then Quentin picked it up with two outs. That’s what we’ve been missing all year long, those kind of at-bats. That’s the reason why we haven’t produced the way we can because we did not have the big hits, but today we did,” Guillen said.

Buehrle allowed six runs over three innings on eight hits. He left after throwing 95 pitches. Since last season’s perfect game against Tampa Bay, the left-hander has given up five or more runs in 12 of 25 outings.

“Buehrle is type of guy you’re going to kill him or he’s going to get you out,” Guillen said. “He will be the same guy no matter if he has a great game. I have never seen Buehrle change even if he throws a perfect game or his worst game he’s the same guy and I respect that.”

Lou Marson hit a three-run homer and Austin Kearns had three hits for the Indians.

After winning the first two games of the series, the Indians failed to complete their first three-game road sweep over the White Sox in 11 years.

“I’m disappointed that we couldn’t win the ball game and end up with a .500 road trip. We started off great scoring six runs off their No. 1 guy, chasing him out of there after the third inning,” Acta said.

With an early 6-2 lead, Indians starter Jake Westbrook was on his way to his first decision in nine starts against the White Sox, but he couldn’t hold the lead. Westbrook gave up a double to Rios in the fourth inning, and Rios’ scored on Quentin’s single.

Alexei Ramirez and Gordon Beckham hit back-to-back singles off Westbrook in the fifth. Ramirez scored on Vizquel’s sacrifice fly, and Rios followed with a RBI single. After a walk to Konerko, Kotsay followed with a RBI single to tie it 6-6.

The White Sox won for only the fourth time in 12 games against the Indians this season.

White Sox reliever Matt Thornton allowed a double off the left-field wall to Kearns in the eighth and Jhonny Peralta drove him in on a single.

Westbrook pitched 4 2-3 innings and gave up six runs and seven hits.

“I lost this ball game today. Six runs is a lot. I need to do a better job shutting it down, keeping the score what it was. I didn’t do my job today. I’m the reason we lost this game today. I don’t care what anybody else tells you. That’s how I feel and that’s the way it is,” Westbrook said.

.

Buehrle struggled for the second straight outing. With one out in the first inning, Buehrle allowed a single to Shin-Soo Choo, a double to Kearns and a two-run single to Peralta. Shelley Duncan followed with a double to right-center to score Peralta from first.

Buehrle is having trouble commanding all of his pitches.

“Everything, my last two starts, the fastball away is cutting back down the middle, I’m not throwing sinkers down the plate, they’re balls and I’m falling behind the count. There really hasn’t been much working for me the last two starts,” Buehrle said.

After getting the first two outs in the third inning, Buehrle walked Luis Valbuena and allowed a single to Matt LaPorta. Marson then broke out of an 0 for 18 slump with a three-run shot to make it 6-2. It was his first home run since Sept. 28, 2008, with Philadelphia.

Notes

• Acta said there has been no greater influence in his coaching career than John Wooden. “Be patient, work hard, and control your emotions. I’m a big believer in that,” Acta said. “Everything I do is following his lead on how to lead people and how to try to get guys to approach a team-first mentality.”
• Indians 2B Mark Grudzielanek left the game with tightness in the right hamstring.
• Cleveland’s last three-game sweep of the White Sox in Chicago came on May 15-17, 1999.

LORAIN — Noemi Pagan, the Lorain teacher injured in a head-on collision in Sheffield Township last week, died of her injuries Sunday at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. (more…)

CHICAGO – Cleveland’s manager and players knew, Indians fans knew, the media knew. Justin Masterson? He insists he wasn’t aware of how bad his losing streak was.

“I honestly didn’t know it was 11 games until you told me right now,” he said after his skid ended with Friday night’s 10-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

“I knew it was getting up there. I knew it had been a while. But overall, I didn’t feel I pitched terribly, so I didn’t think about how long it was. I kept thinking I was on the right track, and that helped me stay in a good place.”

Masterson (1-5), acquired from Boston on July 31 in the Victor Martinez trade, said he had gained some confidence with his solid outing at Yankee Stadium his last time out. Still, he hadn’t won in 17 starts since beating the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 20.

“We’re a close-knit group, and as much as we try to not read the papers or the stat sheets, we’re aware of everything. It’s in our faces,” said left fielder Shelley Duncan, who saved two runs with a fine catch in the second inning. “So everybody is happy to get that win for him.”

Manager Manny Acta said Masterson got a “3,000-pound gorilla off his back.”

The streak-buster wasn’t pretty – five hits, six walks and two hit batters in 52/3 innings – but it finally gave the last-place Indians some good news.

They would have had a perfect game pitched against them Wednesday if not for an umpiring mistake. They were routed by Detroit the next day. And a few hours before Friday’s game, All-Star centerfielder Grady Sizemore underwent season-ending knee surgery.

The trip to Chicago came along at just the right time. The Indians are 7-3 against the White Sox, 13-30 against everybody else.

In losing for the ninth time in its last 13 home games, Chicago fell to 23-31.

“Bad pitching, bad hitting, bad game,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “This has happened to us all year long. We have a great game (Thursday’s 4-3 victory over Texas) … and then 24 hours later, we’re a very different ballclub.”

In games after victories, the White Sox are 4-19.

John Danks (4-5) took a 1-0 lead into the sixth but couldn’t get out of the inning. Shin-Soo Choo doubled, Austin Kearns walked and Russell Branyan singled before Jhonny Peralta – who had four hits and four RBIs – doubled off the left-field wall to put Cleveland ahead.

After Branyan was thrown out at home on Travis Hafner’s grounder, Duncan hit an RBI double and Luis Valbuena chased Danks with a run-scoring single to make it 4-1.

Danks, who allowed four runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings, is 1-5 with a 5.05 ERA since going 3-0 with a 1.55 ERA in April. He has a 3-6 career record against the Indians, including 0-4 at home.

“This is the most frustrated I’ve been in a long time,” Danks said. “We have to do something different. It’s getting kind of old. We feel we’re way better than how we’re playing.”

The only run off Masterson came on Alexei Ramirez’s homer, but the White Sox had multiple baserunners every inning against him.

In the sixth, Masterson walked Mark Kotsay on four pitches and hit Carlos Quentin with a 2-1 delivery, but A.J. Pierzynski grounded into a double play on the next pitch. After Ramirez walked, reliever Frank Herrmann made his major league debut and got Gordon Beckham to fly out.

Herrmann was called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Columbus, where he had a 0.31 ERA and finished with a scoreless streak of 27 1/3 innings.

The 26-year-old right-hander immediately helped the AL’s most-generous bullpen (5.58 ERA entering Friday), retiring all four batters he faced. Jensen Lewis and Rafael Perez followed with a scoreless inning each.

Peralta made it 6-1 in the seventh with another two-run double. In the eighth, Kearns had a two-run homer and Trevor Crowe added a two-run triple.

Surgery ends Sizemore’s season

Sizemore, the Indians’ center fielder, will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing microfracture surgery on his left knee.

Sizemore underwent a 90-minute operation on Friday in Vail, Colo. The team says the procedure performed by Dr. Richard Steadman included microfracture, which involves the drilling of small holes into the kneecap to stimulate the growth of cartilage.

The Indians said Sizemore, a three-time All-Star, will need six to nine months to recover. He is expected to participate in exhibition games next March when the Indians open training camp in Goodyear, Ariz.

The loss of Sizemore is another major blow to the Indians, who are in last place in the AL Central and struggling to sell tickets.

Notable

To make room for Herrmann, the Indians designated RHP Jamey Wright for assignment. The 35-year-old righty was 1-2 with a 5.48 ERA in 18 relief appearances.

• The Indians’ record for most losses in a row by a pitcher is 13, by Guy Morton in 1914.

TONIGHT

• WHO: Cleveland at Chicago
• TIME: 7:05
• WHERE: U.S. Cellular Field
• PITCHERS: Talbot (6-4, 3.78 ERA) vs. Peavy (4-4, 6.30)
• TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

LORAIN — A 22-year-old Lorain woman contacted police last night to report a man tried to rape her.

Krogg

The woman, who said she is homeless and lives with her boyfriend in a “tent city” in woods behind 2001 Elyria Ave., said a man she knows only as “Donnie” approached her yesterday morning after her boyfriend left for work.

Police wound up arresting Donald Krogg, 33, a homeless Lorain man. He faces an attempted rape charge.

The woman said Krogg approached her with his genitalia out, pushed her down in a chair, held her down and made demands that she have sex with him.

When she refused, a struggle ensued, according a police report, and he punched her in the stomach and tried to take her clothes off, fondling her between her legs at one point during the struggle.

The woman, who is pregnant, was concerned due to the blow to her stomach, the report said.

She was able to get away from the man and spent the rest of the day at the Gathering Hope House, the report said. When her boyfriend returned home from work he became upset, confronted Krogg and called police.

According to the report, once confronted, Krogg told the woman’s boyfriend, “Yeah, I tried to rape her. She’s the only girl out here in these woods and if that’s the only way I’m going to get some (expletive) then I’ll rape her.”

LifeCare was called to assist the woman. It was unclear if she was taken to a hospital.

Police who went to the “tent city” located Krogg. Upon ordering him out of his tent, he state “I knew (the woman) would send them down here to get me.”

Krogg told police he is a registered sex offender. Police confirmed he had prior convictions for sexual assault and gross sexual imposition. He was taken to the Lorain City Jail.