CHICAGO (AP) – Grady Sizemore is healthy and ready to help the Cleveland Indians show that perhaps they shouldn’t be written off this season.

The season’s only three games old, but the Indians haven’t felt this successful in years.

“We just wanted to get off to a good start,” Sizemore said Thursday night after his three RBIs helped the Indians to a 5-3, 11-inning victory over the Chicago White Sox.

“Chicago got us in Game 1 but we bounced back and played real well these last two games. We just want to get momentum going and carry that through. We’ve already forgotten about last year.”

The Indians were expected to contend in 2009 but started 0-5 and were seven games out in the AL Central by the first week of May. Injuries limited Sizemore, their best player, to 108 games. They traded stars Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez, finished 65-97 and fired manager Eric Wedge.

They hired Manny Acta as manager and went young – and few prognosticators gave them a chance in 2010.

“We want to prove them wrong,” said Chris Perez, who has saved the last two games as a substitute for injured closer Kerry Wood. “Every year, every single person in the media usually is wrong.”

Luis Valbuena opened the 11th with a bunt single off J.J. Putz (0-1). He went to second on Lou Marson’s sacrifice and, after Putz struck out Michael Brantley, Asdrubal Cabrera dumped a single into right field to put Cleveland ahead. Sizemore followed with his second RBI double of the night.

Acta moved Sizemore from leadoff to No. 2 in the order to give him more opportunities to drive in runs.

“He showed in spring training that he’s healthy and ready to go, and this guy’s going to be an All-Star for us again,” Acta said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to be able to do what he did before he got hurt.”

While Sizemore and the Indians are over .500 for the first time since they were 81-80 on the next-to-last day of 2008, the White Sox are smarting after getting only 14 hits in the series.

Manager Ozzie Guillen made a big push to ditch the wait-for-home-runs strategy of recent years in favor of a small-ball approach, but the White Sox are batting .154 through three games. They struck out 12 times Thursday and stranded eight runners in scoring position.

“We don’t have the luxury to strike out with people on base,” Guillen said. “With this ballclub, we have to put the ball in play, make things happen. I know they’re trying to do better, I know it’s only the third game of the season, I know it’s cold, but we have too many strikeouts.”

After Carlos Quentin’s two-run homer off Joe Smith gave the White Sox a 3-2 lead in the seventh, the Indians tied it against Matt Thornton in the eighth when Travis Hafner singled and scored on Jhonny Peralta’s two-out, two-strike double.

It then started sleeting, making a night with temperatures in the 30s even more uncomfortable.

“It would have been easy after Smitty gave up that homer for us to pack it in, especially with the way the weather is,” Perez said. “But we’re not going to give up. I think that’s going to be a trademark of this team.”

Both starting pitchers performed well, with Cleveland’s Justin Masterson allowing one run on four hits in five innings and Chicago’s Gavin Floyd giving up two runs on five hits in six innings.

The pitching staffs combined for 28 strikeouts. Floyd contributed seven of Chicago’s 16.

Jensen Lewis (1-0) worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win.

NOTES: Indians 1B Russell Branyan (sore back) began a rehab assignment Thursday at Triple-A Columbus. He went 3-for-3, doubled and drove in a run.

MONTCOAL, W.Va. — Dangerous gases forced rescue crews to abandon the search Thursday for four coal miners missing since an explosion killed 25 colleagues in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades.

Rescuers had been working their way through the Upper Big Branch mine by rail car and on foot early Thursday, but officials said they had to turn back because of an explosive mix of gases in the area they needed to search.

“We think they are in danger and that’s the whole intent of evacuating them from the mine,” said Kevin Stricklin of the Mine Health and Safety Administration. “We couldn’t let the rescue teams underground any longer based on the readings.”

The rescuers made it to within about 500 feet of an airtight chamber with four days worth of food, water and oxygen where they hoped the miners might have sought refuge. They did not make it far enough to see the bodies of the dead or determine if anyone had made it to the chamber.

More photos below.

Stricklin acknowledged the evacuation was a setback. An executive with mine owner Massey Energy Co. said later that he hoped crews could get back into the mine around 7 p.m., after crews finished drilling a hole was to allow fresh air in. Officials weren’t sure what caused the gas levels to rise but said it could have been a drop in barometric pressure as a storm rolled in.

The rescue crews were leaving their equipment behind so they did not have to lug it back in with them when they returned. They knew where the bodies would be because rescuers made it that far after the explosion Monday before gases forced them out of the mine.

Stricklin said the families of the dead and missing understood the need to pull rescuers out again.

“It’s a roller coaster for these people,” Stricklin said. “It’s very emotional. You can only imagine what it would be like.”

Rescuers had already had to wait to enter the mine until crews drilled holes deep into the earth to ventilate lethal carbon monoxide and highly explosive hydrogen as well as methane gas, which has been blamed for the explosion. The air quality was deemed safe enough early in the day for four teams of eight members each to go on what officials were still calling a rescue mission, but later tests showed the air was too dangerous to continue.

J. Christopher Adkins, chief operating officer of Massey Energy Co., said at a briefing Thursday afternoon that rescuers were angry they had to turn back. He also described the scene when they went in.

“They see a horrendous explosion and a lot of destruction,” he said.

He also said that workers may have found an alternate route that will allow them to get to where they need to be faster when they can safely go back into the mine.

Once that happens, rescuers will have to walk through an area officials have described as strewn with bodies, twisted railroad track, shattered concrete block walls and vast amounts of dust. Each team member wears 30 pounds of breathing equipment, lugs first-aid equipment and must try to see through total darkness with only a cap lamp to light the way.

Officials and townsfolk acknowledged they didn’t expect to find any of the four missing miners alive more than two days after the massive explosion. Poisonous gases have filled the underground tunnels since Monday afternoon’s blast.

“This was a scenario that we didn’t want,” Gov. Joe Manchin said as he briefed reporters about the evacuations. Families of those still in the mine continued to arrive at a training center there to await word of their fate, and Manchin estimated that perhaps 100 have gathered so far.

“They understand that if we have any hope of survival and they’re in a rescue chamber, then they’re OK,” Manchin said. “That’s the sliver of hope we have.”

Seven bodies had been brought out Monday and authorities hoped to recover 18 others known dead from the mine owned by Massey Energy Co., which has been cited for numerous safety violations.

The mine is outfitted with air-quality sensors that shut down some of the mining machinery when methane levels reach a high level.

Manchin said it’s unclear whether the methane levels reached that point prior to the blast, or whether the sensors detected it. However, the positioning of several bodies in an underground rail car begs the question: “Did a sensor not go off?” the governor said Thursday.

“The miners that they found, it doesn’t look like anyone was alarmed or warned that something as this horrific was going to happen,” Manchin said. “When you find people just sitting in the mantrip, as if they’re just waiting to go out and they’re still there? That tells me there was no panic.”

Even with high gas levels inside the mine, there must have been a source of ignition, Manchin said, and it’s unclear what that might have been.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration has appointed a team of investigators to look into the blast, which officials said may have been caused by a buildup of methane.

Massey has been repeatedly cited for problems with the system that vents methane and for allowing combustible dust to build up, including two large fines assessed in January when federal inspectors found dirty air flowing into an escapeway where fresh air should be, and an emergency air system flowing in the wrong direction. Miners were so concerned about the conditions that several told their congressman they were afraid to go back into the mine.

Even the day of the blast, the federal mine agency cited the mine for two safety violations, one involving inadequate maps of escape routes, the other concerning an improper splice of electrical cable. Stricklin said, however, that those violations had nothing to do with the explosion.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship has strongly defended the company’s record and disputed accusations from miners that he puts coal profits ahead of safety. On Thursday, he began using the social networking site Twitter to communicate about the disaster.

“Pray for the families and the rescue workers,” he tweeted. He also praised the rescue efforts and got in a dig at what he called the “indignity of much of the media.”

The Upper Big Branch mine produced more than 1.2 million tons of coal last year and uses the lowest-cost underground mining method, making it more profitable. It produces metallurgical coal that is used to make steel and sells for up to $200 a ton — more than double the price for the type of coal used by power plants.

The confirmed death toll of 25 was the highest in a U.S. mine since 1984, when 27 people died in a fire at a mine in Orangeville, Utah. If the four missing bring the total to 29, it will be the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Ky.

The effect of so many sudden deaths in the area’s small coal-reliant communities started showing with obituaries for the victims appearing in local newspapers. The first five funerals were scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

Miner William “Bob” Griffith’s family was preparing for the worst. Griffith went to work Monday and never came home, said his brother, James Griffith, who also works at the mine. William Griffith’s brother-in-law, Carl Acord, died in the explosion.

“In my honest opinion, if anyone else survives it, I will be surprised,” James Griffith said.

ELYRIA — Vic’s Night Club owner Dean Costa said today that he had no knowledge of a flier being passed around by a male revue group performing at his club tonight and was appalled when it was brought to his attention, but he plans to go on with the show.

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“We didn’t make it or know anything about it,” Costa said.

The flier, which included an image of a man with two guns, was produced by the manager for “The Chocolate Factory All Male Revue Show,” who Costa called “a really good guy” who is not from our area and had no idea about Elyria’s problems.

“He did not realize it was totally inappropriate,” Costa said. “He was trying to be helpful” by helping to promote the show.

Costa called it “very uncommon” that an outside group would pass around fliers without his knowledge.

Costa said he spoke with Councilman Forrest Bullocks, who had demanded the show be canceled (read the original story), and said of Bullocks, “He was surprised I agreed so totally with him.”

Bullocks said this afternoon that he was disappointed the show wasn’t canceled but was on good terms with Costa after speaking with him.

Costa said he has no reservations about doing business with the group or its manager and plans to go on with the show.

“All it really is is a girls night out,” he said. Men are not admitted to the show, he said.

Costa said manager Mande Kamms, who addressed the flier yesterday, was actually talking about a different flier that had been produced by the club. That flier had nunchucks on it, not guns, he said, but speculated Kamms must have thought the nunchucks were being interpreted by people to represent guns when she responded to a reporter’s questions.

Costa said Kamms was very upset when the actual flier was brought to her attention and even called up several police officers she knows to apologize and clear up the miscommunication.

Costa called the flier “the worst thing we ever could have done,” considering his passion about cleaning up downtown Elyria.

“I don’t want them in our club,” he said, referring to people with guns. “It’s bad for business. We’re losing customers to Amherst and other places” because of the perception downtown Elyria is a violent place.

Costa said his club is the only one with metal detectors in Elyria. He said an incident over the weekend in which two men were arrested after one of them flashed a gun in the club happened after the man left the bar and returned and forced his way in at closing time.

Councilman Bullocks said he doesn’t necessarily buy that explanation.

“The last incident they had was after (the patrons) left the club,” he said. ” ‘Women only’ doesn’t mean that when they leave that there won’t be some sort of confrontation.

“It not the business themselves, it’s the clientele,” Bullocks said. “Evidently, the business is getting a name of being a negative place to be.”

“I don’t know how it could be any more wrong,” Costa said of the flier. “But it is what it is, and it’s done.”

Contact Rona Proudfoot at 329-7124 or rproudfoot@chroniclet.com.

CHICAGO — Fausto Carmona insisted his struggles are far from his mind. A few more starts like this, and he just might make everyone else forget, too.

Carmona allowed one hit over six wild innings and the Cleveland Indians rallied to beat the Chicago White Sox 5-3 Wednesday night for their first win under manager Manny Acta.

“Under the circumstances and all the walks, he did a tremendous job just keeping us in the game and giving us a chance to win,” Acta said.

He walked six batters but came away with the win, perhaps setting a good tone after two miserable seasons. Considering he went a combined 13-19 during that span and spent seven weeks in the minors last year, it’s no surprise that Carmona would rather look ahead than behind.

“I don’t think about any of that,” he said. “I think about the new year and ready to pitch.”

Grady Sizemore drove in two runs, and Matt LaPorta hit a tiebreaking two-out double in the seventh after the Indians erased an early 3-0 deficit.

Chicago’s Jake Peavy struggled through five innings and failed to protect the lead after Paul Konerko delivered a sacrifice fly and his second two-run homer in as many games.

More photos below.

The Indians scored three against Peavy in the fourth to tie it and took the lead in the seventh, when Shin-Soo Choo led off with a single against Randy Williams (0-1) and scored from second when LaPorta doubled to center against Tony Pena. They got another run in the ninth on Andy Marte’s bases-loaded grounder to third.

Despite his control issues, Carmona (1-0) allowed just one hit on a night when the game-time temperature was 43.

“He was a little bit wild and on the verge of losing it, but he pulled it together,” Konerko said. Aaron Laffey and Joe Smith then shut down the White Sox before Chris Perez worked the ninth for his first save.

He walked Mark Kotsay with one out before Alex Rios struck out. Marte, who ran for LaPorta in the seventh, made a diving stop at first base on A.J. Pierzynski’s grounder to end the game.

“That’s something that’s never been in doubt — his ability to play defense,” Acta said. “That was a very nice play in a very important situation. That’s what he needs to do.”

Peavy had a tough act to follow after Mark Buehrle’s season-opening gem and was nowhere near as dominant as he was at the end of last season, when he went 3-0 in September. Instead, the 2007 NL Cy Young winner struggled through five innings, allowing three runs and seven hits while walking two and hitting two batters.

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“I’m cold and we’ve got no hot water in the showers,” Peavy said afterward. Not that it had anything to do with his struggles. It just added to his misery. “I didn’t have good command by any means of anything.”

The early lead disappeared when the Indians sent up nine batters in the fourth.

Peavy hit Mike Redmond to load the bases with one out before Michael Brantley singled in a run. Sizemore tied it with a two-out, two-run single to right, and Choo walked to reload the bases before Travis Hafner ended the inning with a fly to center.

Notes

Acta said 1B Russell Branyan, out with a bad back, will likely start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Columbus this week.

Acta wouldn’t put the blame on C Lou Marson for Jake Westbrook’s club record-tying four wild pitches in the opener. “It’s not easy to block pitches in the dirt,” Acta said. “It’s very unpredictable at times.”