Cody Anderson turned in his best performance of the season, striking out nine over seven innings of one-run ball, as the Indians claimed a 5-1 victory over the White Sox on Monday night at U.S. Cellular Field in Game 2 of their doubleheader. The teams split, with the White Sox winning the opener, 7-6, but they have lost nine of their past 13.
“That was really good,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “One, we needed a win, but it was nice to see him pitch like that.”
“He’s got a nice fastball,” said White Sox manager Robin Ventura of Anderson. “But the changeup/breaking stuff was much better than we’ve seen it before.”
Anderson gave up one run on five hits, picking up his first victory after starting 0-3 with a 7.99 ERA. He improved to 3-0 with a 1.83 ERA lifetime against the South Siders. The White Sox scored their run in the third on Todd Frazier’s two-out double and Melky Cabrera’s ensuing single to left.
“The understatement would be that we were excited with the way he threw the ball,” Francona said.
“He had really good stuff today,” White Sox center fielder Austin Jackson said. “He was throwing all of his pitches for strikes. Kind of keeping us off balance and we just really couldn’t get anything going off of him.”
Cleveland used the long ball to chase Erik Johnson, making his second start as a callup from Triple-A Charlotte. Johnson was optioned to Triple-A after the game. Jose Ramirez went deep with one out in the second and homered in both ends of the doubleheader. Rajai Davis launched a two-run shot on a 3-0 pitch with two outs in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie, and former White Sox infielder Juan Uribe went deep opening the seventh. Johnson gave up five runs on six hits, while striking out five and walking three.
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