CLEVELAND — Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis entered with an 0-1 record and 6.86 ERA. He allowed a club-tying record five homers in a loss to the White Sox last Sept. 15 at Progressive Field.
On Monday, Gaddis held the Sox to no runs on two hits in six innings for his first major league win.
Guardians catcher Mike Zunino, who had one hit in May, barely cleared the right field wall for a homer against Gregory Santos in the seventh.
Go figure.
You’ve got to figure the Sox were positioned to keep a three-game winning streak going as they opened an important seven-game road trip on their journey to find respectability, but they lost 3-0 Monday with a lackluster offensive performance against Gaddis and four Cleveland relievers.
Three hits, on a night when Triple-A callup Jesse Scholtens, provided five tidy innings, is no way treat a rickety won-lost record desperately needing an influx of victories when the getting is good against a weak portion of their schedule.
The result dropped the Sox to 19-30, three games behind third-place Cleveland in the AL Central. The Guardians had lost three in a row.
“Everyone has their day in this game,” reasoned second baseman Romy Gonzalez, who made an outstanding play in the field but struck out three times. “Everyone’s a professional, everyone’s the best in the world. He definitely had his day. You just tip your cap to him.”
Scholtens (0-2, 2.25 ERA), recalled to take Mike Clevinger’s spot on the 26-man roster after Clevinger landed on the 10-day injured list with wrist inflammation Sunday, gave the Sox a chance by pitching five innings of one-run, two-hit ball after Jimmy Lambert pitched a scoreless first inning as the opener.
It was Lambert’s first appearance in 10 days after he appeared in 19 of the Sox’ first 40 games. It marked the first time the Sox went outside their rotation of Dylan Cease, Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech and Clevinger.
A leadoff walk in the second cost Scholtens, who put Gabriel Arias and watched him score on a low and away not-too-wild pitch to Myles Straw that eluded catcher Yasmani Grandal’s backhand attempt with two outs in the inning.
The Sox wasted opportunities when Andrew Benintendi doubled with one out in the fourth and when Andrew Vaughn singled Clint Frazier to second with one out in the seventh.
“Couldn’t get anything done,” manager Pedro Grifol said.
In the bottom of the seventh, Grifol replaced lefty Garrett Crochet with righty Gregoy Santos with a runner on and two outs, and Zunino hit one beyond the reach of leaping right fielder Frazier, who entered as a pinch hitter for Sheets.
“We felt it was a really good matchup for Santos,” Grifol said.
“If you have a guy like Santos coming in, throwing 98-100 with a good slider that he throws for strikes, we like that matchup really well.”
At least Scholtens, who had a 3.99 ERA in seven starts at Charlotte, earned another appearance, perhaps a start, on the next turn, Saturday in Detroit, vacated by Clevinger.
“We have to wait and see what projected lineups come our way in Detroit and play it by ear,” Grifol said.
“I just tried to get myself ready and go out there and execute as many pitches until they told me to stop and that’s what I did,” said Scholtens, a 29-year-old who made his major league debut in April.
The Sox bullpen had a streak of 19 2⁄3 scoreless innings snapped.
For these Sox, it’s always time to get another streak going.
