Rookies help Tribe top White Sox

[June 08, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Rookies Chris Gimenez and Luis Valbuena hit consecutive home runs off former Cleveland ace Bartolo Colon and the Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 8-4 on Sunday.

Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo also hit back-to-back homers off Colon, giving the Indians a 6-0 lead and helping them win a road series for only the second time this season. Cleveland has hit consecutive homers on five occasions this season -- including three times in this three-game series.

Colon became the first pitcher to allow back-to-back homers twice in a game since Detroit's Nate Robertson on Aug. 20 at Texas, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The White Sox have been outscored 35-17 in going 2-5 on a homestand that concludes with a five-game series against first-place Detroit. The defending AL Central champions are 4 1/2 games behind the Tigers and only 2 1/2 games ahead of last-place Cleveland.

Rookie David Huff (1-2) allowed three runs -- all on Alexei Ramirez's homer -- in five innings to earn his first career victory.

Colon (3-6), who won 75 games for the Indians from 1997 to 2002, gave up six runs in five innings. The booing began at U.S. Cellular Field even before the Indians started taking the 36-year-old right-hander deep.

Ben Francisco opened the game with a walk, went to third on Colon's errant pickoff throw and scored on Jamey Carroll's grounder. Gimenez and Valbuena connected in the second.

Gimenez, who made his big league debut Wednesday, has homered in each of his two games. Valbuena, who played briefly for Seattle last season, followed with his first career homer.

Gimenez, Valbuena and Huff are playing because the Indians have been decimated by injuries. They currently have eight players on the disabled list.

Valbuena made it 4-0 with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly. Martinez and Choo hit their homers in the fifth. Colon has allowed 12 homers in his 11 starts.

Carroll went 3 for 5 with two doubles and drove in Cleveland's last run to make it 8-3 in the sixth.

Indians reliever Rafael Perez walked Ramon Castro with the bases loaded and nobody out in the eighth. He then struck out Brian Anderson and Jayson Nix before retiring Gordon Beckham on a diving catch by center fielder Trevor Crowe.

The White Sox are 2 for 39 with runners in scoring position over their last six games.

Notes: White Sox RHP Jose Contreras, demoted to the minors last month with an 0-5 record and 8.19 ERA, will return to the rotation Monday night. He'll pitch the second game of a day-night doubleheader against Detroit. ... Cleveland pitchers walked eight and lead the majors with 243 walks. ... After coming off the DL on Friday and playing two straight games, Indians DH Travis Hafner got the day off. He is hitless in 15 career at-bats against Colon. ... White Sox RF Jermaine Dye returned after serving a two-game suspension for spiking his helmet and arguing with an umpire. He went 0 for 3, including a double-play grounder that let Huff escape a first-inning jam.

[Associated Press]

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