Shin-Soo Choo stayed hot with a grand slam and Fausto Carmona won for the second time in three starts to help the Indians beat the White Sox, 7-4, Sunday at Progressive Field.

The win completed the Indians’ first three-game sweep of Chicago in Cleveland since 2003.

You’ve heard of who’s hot and who’s not? Well, pretty much every position player on the Indians’ roster other than Shin-Soo Choo is not.

With a suspect pitching staff, offense was expected to power the Tribe this season. A look at the numbers of the sagging sluggers listed below entering Saturday reveals that it clearly hasn’t been the case:

Asdrubal Cabrera (.250, 3-for-last-18).

Grady Sizemore (.212, 0-for-last-9).

Travis Hafner (.229, 2-for-last-12).

Jhonny Peralta (.133, 0-for-last-11).

Matt LaPorta (.242, 3-for-last-15).

Luis Valbuena (.185, 1-for-last-11).

Michael Brantley (.192, 1-for-last-12).

Lou Marson (.105, 2-for-last-19).

Mike Redmond (.143, 2-for-last-14).

Mark Grudzielanek (.091, 0-for-last-10).

Andy Marte (.167, 1-for-last-6).

Other than Choo, who was tearing it up with a .333 batting average, three home runs and five RBIs through Friday, Austin Kearns (.333 in five games) is the only other player hitting right now.

Imagine what this team would look like if its pitching hadn’t performed well above the preseason expectations.

It’s a safe bet that Cleveland’s pitching will not be able to carry the load the entire season, and if the offense doesn’t start picking it up, it could get ugly – uglier than it already is.

Pronk’s progress

Will Hafner ever be the feared hitter he was for three years from 2004-06? It doesn’t look like it.

Deemed completely healthy for the first time in three years, Hafner provided reason for optimism with a positive performance in the exhibition season. Still, he just doesn’t look like he has the thunder back in his bat.

Through the first 10 games of the season, Hafner had one extra-base hit, a homer in the fourth game.

He averaged just over 34 homers a year during his heyday, but he will be lucky to hit 30 this season.

Pronk’s power appears to have left with his multitude of shoulder ailments over the past two seasons, and the Indians need more from their cleanup hitter.

Shut it

What’s up with CC Sabathia courting Cavaliers star LeBron James to New York?

Dude skips town, declares his love for Cleveland with a full-page newspaper ad and then tries to help steal the city’s greatest basketball player ever.

In wooing James during an interview, Sabathia said that winning a world championship in New York was different, inferring that it was somehow better than winning anywhere else – namely Cleveland.

How would Sabathia know? He might have gained some insight into winning a World Series title in Cleveland had he manned up in Game 5 of the 2007 ALCS against the Red Sox, instead of buckling to Josh Beckett and Boston with the Indians a win away from advancing to the Fall Classic.

Truth is Sabathia, a California native, was always a West Coast guy when he was in Cleveland. I guess one year and a bunch of money in New York has turned him into an East Coast guy now, one who  has forgotten where he got his start.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

Shin-Soo Choo rode to the rescue again for the Indians, driving in the winning run with a double in the eighth inning Saturday to lift Cleveland to a 3-2 victory over Chicago.

Closer Chris Perez got his third save after retiring the side in order in the ninth.

CLEVELAND – A Mitch Talbot vs. Mark Buehrle matchup didn’t appear to be an ideal one for the Indians, but it worked out pretty well for the home team Friday night at Progressive Field.

Surprisingly enough, Talbot outpitched the White Sox ace, and the Indians won their second straight game, turning back Chicago, 6-2, in front of another sparse crowd of 10,421 fans.

Producing Cleveland’s second straight complete game, Talbot allowed just one earned run on six hits, while striking out two, to record the first major league victory and complete game of his career.

Meanwhile, the Indians’ sagging offense struck gold against Buehrle, scoring six times off the left-hander on six hits through six innings.

“It’s awesome to get your first win in a complete game, especially against a pitcher like Mark,” said the 26-year-old Talbot, who retired eight of the last nine hitters he faced, setting the side down in order in the ninth.

The back-to-back complete games from David Huff (Thursday) and Talbot were the Indians’ first since Chad Ogea and Charles Nagy turned the trick in September of 1996.

Talbot, who won an opening in the rotation in spring training, began on shaky ground in his second start of the season, allowing the first two batters he faced to reach base on singles and a solo home run to Paul Konerko to lead off the second inning.

But the right-hander found his groove from there, retiring 12 straight after Konerko’s fourth homer of the year and allowing just one more run the rest of the way. That run was an unearned one, thanks to Shin-Soo Choo overrunning a single in the sixth from Mark Teahen that allowed Alexei Ramirez to score on the error.

“He was good with his sinker and his cutter,” Cleveland manager Manny Acta said of Talbot. “He set the tone for us. He pounded the strike zone the whole night.

“He didn’t lose his composure. He showed us a lot. This guy has the stuff to compete for us every five days.”

Talbot, who was roughed up in his season debut at Detroit, was in a pinch just once throughout the outing, coming after the Choo error that left a runner on second and no outs, with Chicago trailing 3-2.

After a sacrifice bunt moved Teahen to third, Talbot retired the next two on groundballs to third, keeping the lead intact.

“You’re going to have a couple situations in every game when you get in a jam and have to get out,” said Talbot, who was acquired this offseason in a trade with Tampa Bay for Kelly Shoppach. “I made the pitches and got out of it.”

Buehrle looked to be in control when he shut out the Indians over the first three innings and took a 1-0 lead into the fourth.

But after starting the inning by walking Jhonny Peralta and retiring the next two hitters, Buehrle allowed a game-tying single to Austin Kearns that scored Peralta, who moved to second on a wild pitch.

Second baseman Luis Valbuena followed with a two-run homer to right on an 0-1 fastball that put the Indians in front for good.

“I was excited,” Valbuena said. “The game was tied and I was looking for a fastball up and in.”

It was Valbuena’s second homer of the season, both of them coming against aces in Buehrle and Detroit’s Justin Verlander.

“(The power) is there,” Acta said of Valbuena, who hit 10 homers and 25 doubles in 103 games for the Indians last year. “We know he’s got that extra-base pop.”

The Indians broke the game open, scoring three times in the sixth, two on an error by third baseman Mark Teahen, who booted a grounder from catcher Lou Marson.

Asdrubal Cabrera’s double scored Marson from first to provide the final count.

Huff got the shaving cream pie in his face after his complete-game victory Thursday and returned the favor to Talbot while he was conducting a television interview.

In a celebratory Cleveland clubhouse after the game, Indians coaches got into the act, with first base coach Sandy Alomar hitting pitching coach Tim Belcher with the shaving cream while Belcher met with the media.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

TODAY

WHO: Cleveland vs. Chicago
TIME: 4:10 p.m.
WHERE: Progressive Field
PITCHERS: Westbrook (0-1, 7.45 ERA) vs. Peavy (0-0, 8,44)
TV/RADIO: Channel 8; WMMS 100.7-FM