Indians fall to White Sox for first home loss, Three Takeaways from 2-1 Loss

CLEVELAND, Ohio- On a Brisk spring evening, the Cleveland Indians played their second home game of the 2017 season against the Chicago White Sox.

The Cleveland Indians struggled to muster up any offense, being held hitless for 5 full innings by Derek Holland. Francisco Lindor broke up the no-hitter in the top of the 6th inning.

The Indians lost 2-1 for their first defeat at home and are back at .500 for the second time this season. With the loss, the Indians fall to 4-4 on the early season.

Here's our three takeaways from the 2-1 loss against the Chicago White Sox.

1.) Danny Salazar strong outing, Derek Holland stronger

In Wednesday's ball game, Danny Salazar pitched 6 great innings, gave up 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and had 11 strikeouts. This was the 11th time in his career that he had double-digit strikeouts in a game and Salazar also tied his career high in strikeouts.

After a rough 2nd inning, Salazar settled in the last 4 innings and in his final inning of work struck out the White Sox lineup in order.

Derek Holland on the other hand though was just stronger. Holland also went 6 innings, only gave up one hit, walked 4, and struck out 4. The difference between Holland and Salazar was that Holland avoided a rough inning and had a no-hitter through the first five innings.

2.) One Bad Inning in the 2nd Inning

In the second inning, the White Sox started the inning with a walk then a ground rule double. With runners on second and third, Matt Davidson was up at the plate and hit a single to Michael Brantley.

Brantley rushed the throw and bobbled the ball and missed his cut-off man. 2 runs scored for the White Sox on that play and that was just enough for the White Sox to come away with the victory.

3.) Indians offense too little, too late

As mentioned earlier, Derek Holland shut down the Tribe for the first 5 innings of work. gave the Indians their first hit of the night when he hit a double to left center to start off the sixth inning.

The Indians could not do anything with the lead-off double and only saw one more base runner reach in the sixth inning which was an Encarnacion walk.

Indians offense did not see another batter reach base until Carlos Santana started the 8th inning with a lead-off single. Lindor was up next and hit another double which advanced Santana to third. Brantley drove in Santana when he grounded out to first base. Lindor's double in the 8th inning was the last hit the Indians had in the game.

The Indians left 7 guys on base in the game.