Cleveland, OH – Hector Santiago gave the White Sox the start they were looking for, but it was too little, too late for Chicago in the AL Central pennant race.
Santiago fanned 10 over seven shutout innings, and the White Sox used 15 hits to crush the Cleveland Indians, 11-0, at Progressive Field.
The win kept Chicago's slim playoff hopes alive, but only for a few hours, as the Detroit Tigers clinched the division title with a 6-3 win over the Royals on Monday.
Chicago held a three-game lead over the Tigers as late as September 18, but a 2-10 stretch allowed Detroit to determine its own playoff fate.
"I'm happy with these guys...the work they put in and what they did," Robin Ventura said despite missing the postseason in his first season as White Sox manager. "The effort is all you can ask."
Santiago (4-1), in his fourth career start, allowed just one hit and one walk, while Dayan Viciedo highlighted the offense with a grand slam and an RBI single in the victory.
Corey Kluber (2-5) was charged with four runs on five hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings for the Indians, who had won five of seven coming in.
DeWayne Wise invigorated Chicago's recently punchless lineup with a bunt single in the sixth inning, then stole second with two away and scored the game's first run on Adam Dunn's base hit up the middle.
A walk to Paul Konerko and an RBI single by Alex Rios ended Kluber's outing, and consecutive hits by A.J. Pierzynski and Viciedo each plated a run.
The 4-0 cushion was more than enough for Santiago, who had never pitched more than five innings in the big leagues but retired the final 12 batters he faced after plunking Asdrubal Cabrera to open the fourth.
"(Santiago) threw a ton of strikes. ... I felt like I was down 0-2 (in the count) every time," Indians third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall said.
Alexei Ramirez had an RBI single in the eighth, and the White Sox added six more in the ninth, as Dunn and Konerko each drove in a run and Viciedo capped the rout with a grand slam.
Game Notes
The White Sox snapped their five-game road losing streak ... The White Sox' pitching staff set a franchise record with 1,224 strikeouts, four more than the mark set last season ... Chicago, which hit .133 with runners in scoring position in its previous 13 games, went 8-for-15 in those situations ... The Indians did not have a runner reach past first base in the first eight frames.
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