Cleveland, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Michael Brantley went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI and Carlos Santana also homered as the Cleveland Indians hammered the Chicago White Sox, 12-5, in the opener of a three-game series.
Santana, Ryan Raburn and Yan Gomes each drove in two runs to ignite a Cleveland offense that needed a lift.
The Indians' explosion was a surprising one considering they scored just 13 runs during a winless six-game road trip and hours before the contest placed one of their best offensive weapons, second baseman Jason Kipnis, on the 15- day disabled list.
"We had a real good approach early...and did some really good things offensively," Indians manager Terry Francona said.
The outburst allowed Danny Salazar (1-3) to pick up his first win of the year despite giving up five runs -- three earned -- on seven hits over five-plus frames.
Chicago dropped its third in a row even though rookie Jose Abreu smacked his league-leading 11th home run.
John Danks (2-2), who came in with a 2.79 earned run average in his last six starts in Cleveland, was tattooed for eight runs on 10 hits over five frames.
"I have to throw more strikes and get into pitcher's counts," Danks said. "I'm playing in hitter's counts way too much and getting burned for it."
The left-hander retired the first batter he faced before allowing the next seven to reach base. Santana lined a two-bagger into the left-field corner for the first run, Raburn added two more via a single and Gomes knocked in a pair with a bases-loaded double for a quick 5-0 Cleveland lead.
The White Sox began chipping away immediately with three runs in the second via RBI singles from Alejandro De Aza and Adrian Nieto followed by a run- scoring passed ball, but Danks gave another back in the bottom half when Santana took him deep to left for his fourth home run of the season.
Michael Bourn made it 7-3 with an RBI single in the third, and Abreu and Brantley exchanged solo shots in the fifth.
In the sixth, Bryan Shaw's wild pitch with the bases loaded pushed another run across and cut Chicago's deficit to 8-5, but the Indians poured on four more off the White Sox's bullpen in the bottom half to pull away.
Scott Downs gave up an RBI single to Nick Swisher, and Maikel Cleto yielded a two-run single to Brantley and later threw a wild pitch that allowed David Murphy to score.
Game Notes
The White Sox have lost seven in a row in Cleveland and were 1-8 there last season. They'd lost 14 straight against the Indians until winning three of four in Chicago last month ... Chicago's bullpen had not allowed a run in its previous five games (16 1/3 innings) prior to the sixth frame ... Kipnis is sidelined with a strained abdominal muscle ... Nieto recorded three of Chicago's 10 hits ... Cleveland's bullpen held the White Sox to three hits over the last four innings.
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