By: Sean Fitzgerald

In the series and season rubber match against the Chicago White Sox, the Indians couldn’t come up with clutch hits in a 5-2 loss in front of 21,957 fans.

Triston McKenzie (5-8), looked shaky but limited the damage. Tim Anderson walked to start the game and later came around to score on a one-out single by Yasmani Grandal. 

Lucas Giolito (11-9), saw Myles Straw lead his outing off with a double blooped into short center field that the outfielders couldn’t track down. Straw got as far as third but the offense couldn’t knock him in. 

The Pale Hose got to McKenzie in the third for two more runs on an Eloy Jimenez single to plate Leury Garcia and Jose Abreu. The young hurler had nobody out with the bases juiced before Gavin Sheets launched a ball to left but fell into the mit of Harold Ramirez. 

Harold prevented Grandal from tagging up, but that was it for Triston McKenzie, with Nick Wittgren coming into a bases-loaded jam. 

Andrew Vaughn grounded into a fielder's choice, with Bobby Bradley firing home for the force out. Wittgren struck out Billy Hamilton to escape the mess he inherited. 

With none of the inherited runners scoring, McKenzie’s final line came out to 2 ⅓ innings pitched, serving up three runs on five hits to pair with three walks and three punch outs, plus a hit batter. His control wasn’t sharp, throwing only 31 of 67 pitches for strikes. 

Not much happened through the next few innings, with Garcia driving in Vaughn for the White Sox fourth run of the game in the sixth with the Indians offense snoozing. 

Giolito quietly pieced together a nice afternoon, plowing through six innings of no-run baseball, giving up only five hits. He racked up six strikeouts to only one walk, tossing 62 of 100 pitches for strikes

The bats finally woke up in the bottom of the seventh against Michael Kopech, with Roberto Perez lacing a double to the wall in center and Oscar Mercado with an opposite field shot and a stolen base to put two runners in scoring position with no outs for Straw. 

Straw delivered on a day he reached base four times, plating Perez to put the Indians in the run column. 

While Rosario couldn’t add to the total, the best option Cleveland had was coming to the plate against Garrett Crochet to tie the game: Jose Ramirez. The perennial MVP candidate initially appeared to beat out a fielder’s choice, but upon review was called out for the twin killer to end the Cleveland threat. 

Chicago took a 5-1 lead on a double-steak in the eighth, with Billy Hamilton sliding home safely on the play.

Harold Ramirez launched his seventh homer of this season just over the right field wall, with an air distance of about 340 feet, cutting the deficit to three runs. Despite Myles Straw’s four-hit day and reaching base five times, Liam Hendriks would finish the ninth with the save, sending Cleveland to 39-41 at home on the year.

With only seven games left, a long season will conclude in another seven days, with several questions on how to address the lineup moving forward.

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Jose Ramirez is just that good

Jose Ramirez is just one RBI shy of his second career season with 100-or-more RBI. If Ramirez eclipses that mark, he’d become the only player in Major League Baseball to have 35-plus home runs, 100-or-more RBI, 100-plus runs scored and 25-plus stolen bases in 2021.  

Ramirez previously managed to pull off the feat in 2018. He would become just the 8th player in Major League history to have multiple seasons of 35-plus homers, 100-plus RBI, 100-or-more runs and 25-plus stolen bases, and the first since Alfonso Soriano (2002 and 2005). 

Need for offensive improvement

The Indians have gone 64-18 when scoring four-or-more runs in 2021, with only 12 wins with three-or-fewer runs on the board. 

It goes without saying that the team will have to address the holes in the lineup, with Myles Straw, Franmil Reyes, Jose Ramirez and Amed Rosario the only four regulars likely guaranteed a spot in 2022’s Opening Day lineup. 

The final Indians home game

The final home game Cleveland will play as the Indians will be a make-up game against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, with a 1:10 p.m. first pitch. Cal Quantrill and Jackson Kowar are the probable starters for the contest. 

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Sean Fitzgerald is a Kent State graduate and the press box correspondent for Mark One Sports and CLE TribeCast. Follow him on Twitter @fitzonsportsbsr.