By ,
Published November 20, 2014
Paul Konerko went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, and drove in four to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 12-6 rout of the Cleveland Indians.
Konerko's homer tied him with Duke Snider for 47th place on the all-time home run list with 407.
"Just the fact of being here is probably what I'm most proud of," Konerko said. "More than any numbers or anything like that."
Dayan Viciedo, Alexei Ramirez and Orlando Hudson each drove in two for the White Sox, who completed the three-game sweep. Chicago has won five in a row.
Gavin Floyd (4-5) earned the win after giving up five runs on 10 hits over five-plus innings.
Johnny Damon hit a three-run homer, while Michael Brantley had two hits and drove in a pair for the Indians, who were swept for the first time all season.
Ubaldo Jimenez (5-4) was pegged with the loss after giving up seven runs on seven hits over four-plus frames.
"(Chicago's) hot, they got a lot of things going for them," said Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis. "With Konerko and Viciedo and the way they're hitting. You try to get outs and you got those jam shots, even they're falling too. Everything is clicking for them right now, they're tough."
Chicago went up 3-0 in the first. Alejandro De Aza was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a Gordon Beckham single and advanced to third on an Adam Dunn walk. Konerko plated De Aza with a sac-fly and Rios followed with a single that scored Beckham and a Viciedo sac-fly to plate Konerko capped the scoring in the first.
Damon's three-run blast in the second evened the score at 3-3. Casey Kotchman singled and Shelley Duncan doubled to set the table for Damon, who roped his first home run of the year.
Cleveland added a run in the fourth to go ahead 4-3. Juan Diaz singled, moved to second when Lou Marson was hit by a pitch before advancing to third on a Shin-Soo Choo ground out. Brantley then singled to plate Diaz.
Chicago added three in both the fourth and fifth to take 10-4 lead.
In the fourth, Beckham singled and Dunn walked before Konerko crushed a three-run shot over the wall in left-center.
In the fifth, Ramirez doubled and Tyler Flowers was hit by a pitch to put two on. Hudson followed with a triple to clear the bases. De Aza then hit a triple of his own to plate Hudson.
"It's always hard to keep this pace," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "But it's the work, for me, it's how (the offense) go about their approach. They're not always going to score double-digits, but the way they're doing it is what I'm more impressed by."
Cleveland scored one in the sixth to cut it to 10-5. Diaz singled, moved to third on Luke Carlin's ground-rule double and then scored on a Brantley groundout.
A Viciedo RBI single in the eighth made it 12-5.
The Tribe added one in the ninth when Lopez doubled to score Brantley.
"It seems like we got the White Sox at the wrong time," Damon said. "Any time you're missing your three, four and five guys it can be tough on a team. It was a tough series."
Game Notes
Konerko extended his hitting streak to 13 straight games. He is hitting .399 this season and picked up his 400th career home run with Chicago...The White Sox have won nine of their last 10...The Indians were outscored 35-16 in the series...Brantley extended his hitting streak to six games.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/konerko-stars-as-chisox-bash-sweep-tribe