Written by Jeff Rich

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It was the 46th run of the night, but perhaps the single most devastating one for the hometown fans still in the house on Chicago's south side, as Nick Swisher crossed home plate, representing the go-ahead run in Game 2 of the Indians traditional doubleheader with the White Sox that concluded in the early hours of Saturday morning in the Central Time Zone.  It was the former White Sox player's only hit in the night cap, but the fourth in a four-run ninth inning that saw Chicago closer Addison Reed blow his fourth save of the season.

After a rocky first inning for Jose Quintana, things settled down and his offense got him back in the game.  The 24 year-old native of Arjona, Colombia shut the Indians down back on April 12th, to the tune of 1 hit over 7 innings at Progressive Field, then pitched effectively at home on April 24th, earning a win after 5 innings of work.  In the second game played in a day that saw the city's hockey team honored downtown, the Indians got Quintana early, but not often enough.  The Tribe didn't do anything particularly special with their bats, simply stringing together singles from Michael Bourn, Mike Aviles, and Jason Kipnis on their way to a 4-run first inning.

 

After that, he was cruising right along, retiring 10 straight at one point.  His only mistake after the first inning was a Mark Reynolds home run on his first pitch of the sixth inning, which made it 5-2 in favor of the away team.  Alejandro De Aza had scored both Chicago runs to that point; in the first inning, he scored from third on Connor Gillespie's sacrifice fly and in the bottom of the fifth, it was Jeff Keppinger's ground ball single to center field that scored the White Sox left fielder.

The White Sox were able to respond to the Reynolds home run in the home half of the frame.  Starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco was giving a fine performance until he started throwing batting practice, loading the bases, giving up two runs, and putting his faith in Rich Hill to keep two more from scoring on his stat line.  No thanks to Hill, two more runs were added to Carrasco's stat line, and the Tribe's top provider of chin music was staring at a 10 hit, 6 run performance down in the clubhouse.

Matt Langwell, who was called up between games, got the call in the eighth inning and walked the lead-off hitter, De Aza.  That would come back to bite Langwell after the speedy outfielder stole second base and scored on Alexi Ramirez's double.  Ramirez scored on a Keppinger triple to right field.  Since Nate Jones and Jesse Crain had held the Indians scoreless, it Reed, the White Sox closer and subject of recent trade rumors for Robin Ventura in the ninth.

Ryan Raburn led off the ninth inning with a single.  Francona went to his bench and Asdrubal Cabrera to hit for Stubbs, and Cabrera put the "hitter" into pinch-hitter with a knock of his own.  Michael Bourn came to the plate, theoretically representing the tying run; he poked a single to center field, which brought home Raburn to cut the lead to 8-6.  Francona would once again to his bench with Mike Aviles due up, this time opting for Jason Giambi.  Reed was ahead in the count when a slider to Giambi got away from him, plating Cabrera from third and cutting the deficit to 1.

Bourn moved to second on the wild pitch.  Giambi would eventually fly out, so the speedy Bourn moved to third and tied the game on a Jason Kipnis sacrifice fly.  Swisher was next up, but he went down in the count early before working it back to full.  He knocked it over the right field wall, and that was the jam.  All he needed was his bro, Vinnie Pestano to keep the White Sox from scoring in the home half of the ninth, and the long day would have a happy ending.  Pestano pitched around a 1-out walk for the save; in fact, he struck out the side to end the game.  Langwell got the win.