White Sox grab early lead, hold off Guardians

Erick Fedde held the visiting Cleveland Guardians scoreless over six-plus innings as the Chicago White Sox opened the four-game series with a 3-2 victory on Thursday.

Fedde (3-0) allowed six hits and no walks while striking out three. Eloy Jimenez broke out of a 4-for-33 slump with two hits for Chicago, which recorded just its 10th win of the season after prevailing for the fourth time in the past six games.

The White Sox also got two hits apiece from Tommy Pham and Bryan Ramos.

Josh Naylor, Will Brennan and Bo Naylor each had two hits for Cleveland, which went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.

Trailing 3-0 with two outs in the eighth inning, Cleveland cut into the deficit with back-to-back homers by Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor against John Brebbia.

Michael Kopech replaced Brebbia and retired David Fry on a flyout before working around a one-out single in the ninth for his fourth save.

Chicago went on top in the first inning when Pham hit a leadoff double and scored on Andrew Vaughn's one-out double off the right-center-field fence.

The White Sox added two runs in the second inning. Ramos doubled to begin the inning and Paul DeJong followed with a run-scoring single. After DeJong stole second with two outs, Pham delivered an RBI single.

Cleveland starter Ben Lively (1-2) allowed three runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out two.

Ramos is 7-for-18 (.389) with two doubles in six games since being recalled from Double-A Birmingham for his major league debut last week.

Chicago maintained its lead after escaping a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the seventh inning.

Fedde was replaced by Jordan Leasure after allowing three consecutive singles to begin the seventh inning. Leasure then struck out Bo Naylor and Tyler Freeman before Kyle Manzardo grounded out.

Cleveland came up empty earlier in the game when Fedde allowed consecutive singles to begin the fifth inning. Fedde escaped unscathed after Freeman grounded into a double play and Manzardo grounded to first base.

—Field Level Media