CHICAGO — Luis Valbuena had a a big zero in the home-run column, and it was bothering him.

Catcher Lou Marson, left, congratulates relief pitcher Chad Durbin after defeating the Chicago White Sox 7-3 on Sunday. (AP photo.)

He can rest easy now.

Valbuena connected for a solo shot and Ubaldo Jimenez threw six effective innings, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 7-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Valbuena also singled twice and scored two runs as the Indians collected 14 hits. Trevor Crowe had three singles, and Jason Donald and Lonnie Chisenhall added two hits apiece.

“I feel good because I was working all day in the cage and made an adjustment,” Valbuena said.

Valbuena drove an 0-2 pitch from Will Ohman over the wall in right in the sixth, making it 4-2 Tribe. It was Valbuena’s first extra-base hit and RBI this season. He entered the game just 5 for 34 on the season at the big league level despite hitting .302 in 113 games for Triple-A Columbus.

“He’s tough to read because he’s never looked overmatched, but the numbers don’t add up,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He was our best hitter in Triple-A the whole year. … Today he had a very good day. I’m happy for Luis because he’s had enough hard times up here the last two years.”

Valbuena especially enjoyed his first major league homer since April 16, 2010.

“I’m so happy because I don’t want to see the zero there,” Valbuena said.

Crowe entered the game hitless in seven at-bats. After starting 106 games in the outfield for Cleveland in 2010, Crowe had shoulder surgery on March 30 and was activated on Wednesday.

“It was good to see him do that,” Acta said. “He spent the whole season basically in Arizona rehabbing. … It’s nice to see him have some success so he’ll have some confidence going forward.”

Despite the slow start since his return, Crowe felt he was about to break through.

“I felt like for the amount of time off, I was seeing the ball really well and it was only a matter of time before I started making some solid contact,” Crowe said.

Jimenez (3-2) issued five walks, but allowed just two runs and three hits. The right-hander, who was acquired from Colorado before the July 31 trade deadline, struck out two and improved to 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA over his last four outings.

“I felt good out there,” Jimenez said. “I only had a couple of innings (when) I couldn’t find the strike zone. I think I was trying to throw too many breaking balls and couldn’t control them.”

While his command was shaky, Jimenez reached the upper 90s with his fastball, important for a pitcher who has struggled with inconsistent velocity this season.

“When I got to the fifth inning, I (thought the fastball) was my best pitch today,” Jimenez said.

White Sox starter Zach Stewart (2-4) yielded three runs and seven hits over five innings in his first outing since he tossed a one-hitter at Minnesota last Monday.

“I wasn’t hitting spots like I was last outing, like I should have been,” Stewart said. “I missed some spots. Some of my breaking balls weren’t as sharp, I left them over the plate and got hit around a little bit.”

Alejandro De Aza went 2 for 3, scored two runs and stole two bases for Chicago. Juan Pierre and Alexei Ramirez each singled twice and drove in a run.

Jimenez walked the bases full in the fourth, the last of the free passes issued to Brent Morel, who has drawn seven of his 14 walks this season since Sept. 1. Jimenez got Gordon Beckham on a grounder to third to escape the threat.

The White Sox also left the bases full four times on Saturday.

“Well, you know we continue to leave people on base,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Jimenez throw 100 pitches. I never see a guy throw 100 pitches and only (allow) two runs.”

The Indians broke it open with three runs in the eighth against Matt Thornton. Donald drove in a run with an infield hit and Carlos Santana lashed a two-run double to right.

The Indians earned a split in the four-game series between teams chasing Detroit in the AL Central. The Tigers won their ninth in a row Sunday and lead Chicago by 10½ games and Cleveland by 11.”We played right into the Tigers’ hands basically,” Acta said. “That what we did this series, kill each other while they continue to win.”

Notes

• White Sox RHP Jake Peavy will not pitch again this season. The 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner will rest in an effort to come back at full strength in 2012. Peavy had shoulder surgery last season. Rookie Dylan Axelrod will start in Peavy’s place on Wednesday.
• The Indians activated DH Travis Hafner (strained right foot) from the disabled list. Acta said Hafner will split time at DH with Jim Thome for the remainder of the season.
• The White Sox will try to keep their slim playoff hopes alive when they open a three-game series against Detroit at U.S. Cellular Field on Monday. Rick Porcello will face Chicago’s John Danks in the opener.
• The Indians’ 10-game trip continues with a stop in Texas on Monday for the opener of a three-game set. Justin Masterson will start for Cleveland against Matt Harrison.

Next up

• Who: Cleveland at Texas
• When: Tuesday, 8:05 p.m.
• Where: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
• Pitchers: Masterson (11-9, 3.09 ERA) vs. Harrison (11-9. 3.50)
• TV/radio: SportsTime Ohio; MLBN; WEOL 930-AM; WTAM 1100-AM

By Larry Neumeister and Samantha Gross

NEW YORK — Determined never to forget but perhaps ready to move on, the nation gently handed Sept. 11 over to history Sunday and etched its memory on a new generation. A stark memorial took its place where twin towers once stood, and the names of the lost resounded from children too young to remember terror from a decade ago.

In New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, across the United States and the world, people carried out rituals now as familiar as they are heartbreaking: American flags unfurled at the new World Trade Center tower and the Eiffel Tower, and tears shed at the base of the Pentagon and a base in Iraq.

Finn Straine, 12, left, and his brother Charlie Straine, 10, stand by the name of their father, James Straine Jr., as they attend the 10th anniversary ceremonies Sunday at the National September 11 Memorial in New York. (AP PHOTO)

President Barack Obama quoted the Bible and spoke of finding strength in fear. George W. Bush, still new to the presidency that day, invoked the national sacrifice of the Civil War. Vice President Joe Biden said hope must grow from tragedy.

And Jessica Rhodes talked about her niece, Kathryn L. LaBorie, the lead flight attendant on the plane that hit the south tower. She remembered a radiant smile and infinite compassion, and suggested that now, 10 years on, it is time to turn a corner.

“Although she may not ever be found, she will never ever be lost to her family and her friends,” Rhodes said after she read a segment of the list of the dead at ground zero. “Today we honor her by letting go of the sadness over losing her and embracing the joy of having known her.”

It was the 10th time the nation has paused to remember a defining day. In doing so, it closed a decade that produced two wars, deep changes in national security, shifts in everyday life — and, months before it ended, the death at American hands of the elusive terrorist who masterminded the attack.

“These past 10 years tell a story of resilience,” Obama said at a memorial concert at the Kennedy Center after he visited all three attack sites.

“It will be said of us that we kept that faith; that we took a painful blow, and emerged stronger,” he said.

The anniversary took place under heightened security. In New York and Washington especially, authorities were on alert. Ahead of the anniversary, the federal government warned those cities of a tip about a possible car-bomb plot. Police searched trucks in New York, and streets near the trade center were blocked. To walk within blocks of the site, people had to go through checkpoints.

The names of the fallen — 2,983 of them, including all the victims from the three Sept. 11 attack sites and six people who died when terrorists set off a truck bomb under the towers in 1993 — echoed across a place utterly transformed.

In the exact footprints of the two towers was a stately memorial, two great, weeping waterfalls, unveiled for the first time and, at least on the first day, open only to the relatives of the victims. Around the square perimeter of each were bronze parapets, etched with names.

Some of the relatives were dressed in funereal suits and others in fire department T-shirts. They traced the names with pencils and paper, and some left pictures or flowers, fitting the stems into the recessed lettering.

At the south tower pool, an acre in area and 30 feet deep, Mary Dwyer, of Brooklyn, remembered her sister, Lucy Fishman, who worked for Aon Corp., an insurance company that occupied seven floors near the very top.

“It’s the closest I’ll ever get to her again,” she said.

One Sept. 11 relative pronounced the memorial breathtaking. An underground section and a museum won’t open until next year, but for many of the families, the names were enough.

“It breaks me up,” said David Martinez, who watched the attacks happen from his office in Manhattan, and later learned that he had lost a cousin and a brother, one in each tower.

At memorial services, people talked of grief and loss and war and justice. But they also talked of moving forward.

“Every year it becomes more significant,” Barbara Gorman said at a service for the Port Authority dead, which included 37 police officers, one of them her husband, Thomas. “My kids are 25, 21, 18. They understand now. It’s not so much a tragedy anymore as history, the history of our country.”

In the decade between then and now, children have grown. The second-graders who were with Bush on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, will graduate high school next spring. And children who were in the cradle or the womb on that day are old enough to read names at the anniversary, old enough to bear the full burden of their grief.

“You will always be my hero,” Patricia Smith, 12, said of her mother.

Nicholas Gorki remembered his father, “who I never met because I was in my mother’s belly. I love you, Father. You gave me the gift of life, and I wish you could be here to enjoy it with me.”

Alex Zangrilli said: “Dad, I wish you were here with me to give me advice, to be on the sidelines when I play sports like all the other dads. … I wish we had more time together.”

Madeline Hoffman smiled as she said to her father: “Everyone always tells me I look and act just like you.” And Caitlin Roy, whose father was a firefighter, said: “I want to thank you for the nine years you spent as my dad. They were short but not without their benefits. We’re taken care of now. We’re happy.”

CLEVELAND – This wasn’t the start new coach Pat Shurmur envisioned for his Browns in the season opener. He was hearing boos from the home crowd by the end of the first quarter.

His young team committed seven penalties in the first quarter, got a single first down and trailed the Cincinnati Bengals 10-0 after 15 minutes today at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Quarterback Colt McCoy rolled out on the first play of the new season and had his pass to tight end Benjamin Watson batted back in his face by defensive end Robert Geathers. McCoy instinctively caught it for a 5-yard loss.

The Browns punted two plays later, and Richmond McGee shanked it off the side of his foot for 20 yards. It was McGee’s first kick in a regular-season NFL game.

The Bengals capitalized with a 10-play, 35-yard drive that ended with a 24-yard Mike Nugent field goal. Cincinnati used a lot of handoffs to running back Cedric Benson to take some pressure off rookie quarterback Andy Dalton. Cincinnati picked on rookie defensive end Jabaal Sheard and linebacker Chris Gocong, who didn’t play all preseason with a neck stinger.

The Browns helped with a holding penalty on cornerback Sheldon Brown and a neutral zone infraction on Sheard. But cornerback Joe Haden forced a field goal with consecutive breakups in the end zone.

Cleveland’s second possession wasn’t any better. More penalties contributed to a third-and-24, following a third-and-16 on the opening “drive.” Taking the cake was an unsportsmanlike penalty on the Browns bench for knocking down an official.

The Bengals started on Cleveland’s 41-yard line again, and this time scored a touchdown on a 2-yard Dalton pass to tight end Jermaine Gresham.

ELYRIA – A Lorain man died early Saturday morning following an accident in which his truck went off the road, struck a tree and burst into flames.

Marc A. Youngless, 41, was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after
1 a.m. by Lorain County Deputy Coroner Eric Lockhart, who said the man died of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation. Lockhart said the man also suffered significant burns in the crash.

The Elyria post of the Ohio Highway Patrol said Youngless was southbound in a black 1991 GMC pickup on Baumhart Road about two-tenths of a mile south of Cooper Foster Park Road about 12:45 a.m. when he veered off the right side of the road.

The truck struck a ditch and culvert before traveling on into a yard where it struck a tree. The pickup burst into flames following the impact, the patrol said.

Youngless was alone in his vehicle.

Vermilion Fire Department firefighters responded to the scene, where they extinguished the fire in short order, according to Lockhart. “The vehicle was immediately in flames.”

Lockhart said he performed toxicology tests at the scene but results would not be available for a few days.

Authorities listed an address on Broadway in Lorain for Youngless that corresponded to a small mobile home park near Clearview High School.

However, Lockhart said Youngless was apparently living with his father, Robert Youngless, in the Amherst area at the time of the accident.

“I questioned why he was on Baumhart Road at that time if he resided on Broadway, and his father said he was probably coming back to stay with him,” Lockhart said. “That would be on the way to his father’s address.”

Marc Youngless was divorced and had a daughter, according to Lockhart.

“His dad said he was unemployed but was seeking work,” Lockhart said. “In fact, he said his son had had a job interview earlier that same day (Friday).”

The man’s father said Youngless was an electrician by trade, according to Lockhart.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.