Joey Cantillo pitched seven excellent innings to earn his first major league win, and the Cleveland Guardians defeated the Chicago White Sox 5-3 on Monday night.
Cantillo was close to a perfect game until Andrew Benintendi hit a single into right field with two outs in the seventh inning. Benintendi advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Andrew Vaughn’s single. However, Korey Lee hit a ground ball to third base to end the inning.
Cantillo (1-3) struck out a career-high 10 batters in his fifth start and sixth major league game. The 24-year-old left-hander, who was called up from Triple-A Columbus earlier in the day, replaced Alex Cobb, who was scratched on Saturday due to a blister.
“That was a beautifully pitched game,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.
When asked if the seventh inning was always planned to be Cantillo’s last, Vogt gave a subtle response with a smile.
“Let’s just say I was not too upset that the hit happened,” he said. “Yeah, I mean you get to that point in the game and we have to think of his health, we have to think of the rest of the season.”
David Fry and Bo Naylor hit home runs for Cleveland, and Steven Kwan reached base three times from the leadoff spot and scored two runs.
The Guardians extended their AL Central lead to 3 1/2 games over second-place Kansas City, which lost 10-4 to the New York Yankees.
“It means a lot,” Cantillo said about his first win. “I mean, a little weight lifted off, I guess. … We know how important that is to just get that win. A team win.”
The White Sox suffered their 13th straight home loss and 15th in 17 games. With a record of 33-112, they are getting close to the modern major league record for most losses, which is 120 by the 1962 New York Mets in their first season.
Bryan Ramos hit his first big league home run for Chicago in the eighth inning, a two-run shot off Nick Sandlin. Emmanuel Clase closed the game in the ninth for his 43rd save in 46 chances.
