By The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — Asdrubal Cabrera’s leadoff home run in the fourth broke a tie game, and the Cleveland Indians defeated the Chicago White Sox 4-3 on Tuesday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

Fausto Carmona (7-15) allowed three runs in six innings and won for the first time since Aug. 17.

Travis Hafner and Kosuke Fukudome also homered off Gavin Floyd (12-12), who hasn’t won since Aug. 29. Chicago has lost eight of its last nine games.

The teams, who were eliminated from the AL Central race last week when Detroit clinched the division, are battling for second place. The Indians lead the White Sox by 2½ games.

Hafner’s two-run homer in the first gave Cleveland the lead, but Chicago tied the game in the second on Adam Dunn’s RBI double and Alejandro De Aza’s run-scoring single.

Cabrera’s home run put Cleveland ahead and was his 24th of the season. Cabrera, who entered Saturday’s game against Minnesota in an 0-for-20 slump, has eight hits in his last 13 at-bats. He has homered in back-to-back games.

Fukudome homered with one out in the fifth.

Carmona struck out three and walked two. Relievers Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez, who recorded his 35th save, blanked Chicago over the final three innings.

Chicago’s first four hitters reached against Carmona in the second. Singles by A.J. Pierzynski and Alex Rios started the inning. Dunn, batting .165 when the game began, slapped a double down the third base line that scored Pierzynski. De Aza’s single to right tied the game.

De Aza added an RBI groundout in the sixth. Continued…

Floyd gave up four runs and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter.

Notes

* The game was the makeup of a July 23 rainout at Progressive Field.

* White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says LHP Mark Buehrle will start Wednesday night. Buehrle (11-9, 3.74 ERA) has sore biceps after being hit with a ball in his last start. RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (4-2, 4.56) will start for the Indians.

* Guillen played most of his regulars in Tuesday’s first game. …

* The White Sox are 9-6 against the Indians with three games to play in the season series. …

* Indians 3B Jack Hannahan was a defensive replacement in the eighth inning, his first appearance since straining his left calf Sept. 4. …

* Lou Marson struck out in all three at-bats. …

* The Indians are playing nine games in seven days on their final homestand of the season. Cleveland played a makeup game with Seattle on Monday and will play another day-night doubleheader against Minnesota on Saturday. … The Indians recalled RHP Corey Kluber from Triple-A Columbus.

By The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — Asdrubal Cabrera’s leadoff home run in the fourth broke a tie game, and the Cleveland Indians defeated the Chicago White Sox 4-3 on Tuesday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

Fausto Carmona (7-15) allowed three runs in six innings and won for the first time since Aug. 17.

Travis Hafner and Kosuke Fukudome also homered off Gavin Floyd (12-12), who hasn’t won since Aug. 29. Chicago has lost eight of its last nine games.

The teams, who were eliminated from the AL Central race last week when Detroit clinched the division, are battling for second place. The Indians lead the White Sox by 2½ games.

Hafner’s two-run homer in the first gave Cleveland the lead, but Chicago tied the game in the second on Adam Dunn’s RBI double and Alejandro De Aza’s run-scoring single.

Cabrera’s home run put Cleveland ahead and was his 24th of the season. Cabrera, who entered Saturday’s game against Minnesota in an 0-for-20 slump, has eight hits in his last 13 at-bats. He has homered in back-to-back games.

Fukudome homered with one out in the fifth.

Carmona struck out three and walked two. Relievers Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez, who recorded his 35th save, blanked Chicago over the final three innings.

Chicago’s first four hitters reached against Carmona in the second. Singles by A.J. Pierzynski and Alex Rios started the inning. Dunn, batting .165 when the game began, slapped a double down the third base line that scored Pierzynski. De Aza’s single to right tied the game.

De Aza added an RBI groundout in the sixth.

Floyd gave up four runs and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter.

Notes

* The game was the makeup of a July 23 rainout at Progressive Field.

* White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says LHP Mark Buehrle will start Wednesday night. Buehrle (11-9, 3.74 ERA) has sore biceps after being hit with a ball in his last start. RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (4-2, 4.56) will start for the Indians.

* Guillen played most of his regulars in Tuesday’s first game. …

* The White Sox are 9-6 against the Indians with three games to play in the season series. …

* Indians 3B Jack Hannahan was a defensive replacement in the eighth inning, his first appearance since straining his left calf Sept. 4. …

* Lou Marson struck out in all three at-bats. …

* The Indians are playing nine games in seven days on their final homestand of the season. Cleveland played a makeup game with Seattle on Monday and will play another day-night doubleheader against Minnesota on Saturday. … The Indians recalled RHP Corey Kluber from Triple-A Columbus.

Nick Blackburn earned his first win in a month, Jason Kubel had a pair of RBIs and the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2 Wednesday to sweep a brief two-game series behind some outstanding pitching.

Minnesota won the opener Tuesday night 1-0 when Francisco Liriano held the punchless and reeling White Sox hitless. Last-place Chicago has now lost 17 of 21 as it heads to the West Coast for a nine-game road trip.

Blackburn (2-4) followed up Liriano’s gem by holding the White Sox to four hits and a run in 6 2-3 innings, including Alex Rios’ solo homer in the third that tied the game at 1-1.

John Danks (0-5), a 15-game winner a year ago, gave up eight hits and three runs over eight innings for Chicago in taking yet another loss with little run support.

Minnesota forged ahead with two runs in the sixth inning.

Denard Span singled and Matt Tolbert reached on a bunt single when Chicago second baseman Omar Vizquel didn’t cover first after third baseman Mark Teahen fielded the ball. Span moved to third on a fly ball and scored on Kubel’s sacrifice fly, and after Michael Cuddyer was walked intentionally, Rene Tosoni delivered an RBI single to make it 3-1.

Chicago got an unearned run in the eighth when Alexei Ramirez hit a one-out double off Glen Perkins and moved to third on a passed ball before Adam Dunn walked. Matt Capps relieved and gave up Paul Konerko’s sacrifice fly before retiring Carlos Quentin on a pop.

Capps gave up a single and hit a batter in the ninth before retiring Juan Pierre on a fly ball to end the game and get his fifth save in six chances.

The Twins struck with a first-inning run when Span walked, moved up on a sacrifice bunt and Kubel hit a two-out RBI single.

Blackburn opened with a win in his first start of the season April 3 and was winless in four starts since. In his last outing, he gave up eight hits and five earned runs in 3 1-3 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays.

NOTES: Kubel, who homered Tuesday night for the only run, has 69 RBIs in 72 games against the White Sox. … Drew Butera’s fifth-inning hit snapped an 0-for-22 skid. … Rios had three hits for Chicago, which is 1-9 in its last 10 home games. … The game time was 2 hours, 30 minutes, or 21 minutes longer than Tuesday night.

CHICAGO — Nick Blackburn earned his first win in a month, Jason Kubel had a pair of RBIs and the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2 today to sweep a brief two-game series behind some outstanding pitching.

Minnesota won the opener Tuesday night 1-0 when Francisco Liriano held the punchless and reeling White Sox hitless. Last-place Chicago has now lost 17 of 21 as it heads to the West Coast for a nine-game road trip.

Blackburn (2-4) followed up Liriano’s gem by holding the White Sox to four hits and a run in 6 2-3 innings, including Alex Rios’ solo homer in the third that tied the game at 1-1.

John Danks (0-5), a 15-game winner a year ago, gave up eight hits and three runs over eight innings for Chicago in taking yet another loss with little run support.

Minnesota forged ahead with two runs in the sixth inning.

Denard Span singled and Matt Tolbert reached on a bunt single when Chicago second baseman Omar Vizquel didn’t cover first after third baseman Mark Teahen fielded the ball. Span moved to third on a fly ball and scored on Kubel’s sacrifice fly, and after Michael Cuddyer was walked intentionally, Rene Tosoni delivered an RBI single to make it 3-1.

Chicago got an unearned run in the eighth when Alexei Ramirez hit a one-out double off Glen Perkins and moved to third on a passed ball before Adam Dunn walked. Matt Capps relieved and gave up Paul Konerko’s sacrifice fly before retiring Carlos Quentin on a pop.

Capps gave up a single and hit a batter in the ninth before retiring Juan Pierre on a fly ball to end the game and get his fifth save in six chances.

The Twins struck with a first-inning run when Span walked, moved up on a sacrifice bunt and Kubel hit a two-out RBI single.

Blackburn opened with a win in his first start of the season April 3 and was winless in four starts since. In his last outing, he gave up eight hits and five earned runs in 3 1-3 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Notes
Kubel, who homered Tuesday night for the only run, has 69 RBIs in 72 games against the White Sox. … Drew Butera’s fifth-inning hit snapped an 0-for-22 skid. … Rios had three hits for Chicago, which is 1-9 in its last 10 home games. … The game time was 2 hours, 30 minutes, or 21 minutes longer than Tuesday night.

Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley:

The company line was spewed throughout the weekend.

General manager Ken Williams talked about talent and the ‘‘ability to turn this around and turn it around quickly.’’ He made it seem like it couldn’t get any lower.

On Tuesday night, it did. Lower by about 6 feet after Minnesota Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano — he of the 9.13 ERA heading into the series against the Sox — no-hit the hapless South Siders in their own backyard 1-0. A hammer, a few nails, some dirt on top and a headstone.

Rest in peace, you $125 million pile of dung.

Not since Torii Hunter made catcher Jamie Burke road-kill in 2004 have the Sox been this embarrassed at home. And it came at the hands of the Twins again.

Read more of the story.

Also from the Sun-Times:

Minnesota Twins left-hander Francisco Liriano rose to a new high. The sinking White Sox plum- meted to another low.

Liriano, who never had thrown a complete game in his pro career, threw a no-hitter Tuesday against the slumping South Siders, the latest downturn in a horrific start to the season.

‘‘That’s the way we roll, I guess,’’ said Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, whose team lost 1-0 at U.S. Cellular Field to fall into last place in the American League Central at 11-20.

The only way the Sox have rolled this season is downhill.

Read more of the story.

Daily Herald’s Mike Imrem:

Now that the White Sox’ record is 11-20, maybe it’s OK to seriously consider whether a baseball team can lose an entire season in little more than a month

The bottom keeps getting lower for the Sox. Like, the team that is supposed to be “All in” this year, as the marketing campaign proclaims, made all outs Tuesday night.

As if being 9½ games out of first place after 30 games wasn’t bad enough for the Sox, they lost 1-0 to Minnesota in Game 31 and Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano no-hit them.

“I was asking people what to say,” Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said afterward. “This was the first (no-hitter against the Sox) in my career (as a manager).”

It isn’t the kind of first that anybody likes to be on the losing end of, but it has been that kind of early season for the Sox. The team that already was playing badly enough couldn’t get a hit against a pitcher that came in with a 9.13 earned-run average.

Read more of the story.

 Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers:

Like the 12-steppers say, before you can fix a problem you have to admit you have one.

The White Sox have been in denial. But Francisco Liriano, he of the 9.13 earned-run average, may have just done them a very painful favor.

When you can’t get even one hit off Liriano, especially after a 4-15 stretch in which you have scored all of 50 runs, you have a problem. A big problem.

Liriano’s out-of-nowhere no-hitter on a chilly Tuesday night, before a crowd of 20,901 at U.S. Cellular Field, was not one of baseball’s true gems. It included six walks, four in the first four innings. But as Sox manager Ozzie Guillen points out, it’s still one for the history books — and the Twins hope it will jump start their woeful season

Read more of the story.

ESPN Chicago’s Doug Padilla:

The Minnesota Twins’ Francisco Liriano turned a matchup too ugly for attention into a thing of relative beauty Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox.

The left-hander drew all the focus by pitching the first no-hitter of the 2011 season in a matchup of two down-on-their-luck teams.

At least the 1-0 final score was representative of the offensive struggles from both clubs.

Just how backward was this rags-to-riches contest? Liriano, a noted strikeout pitcher, was dumbfounded that his first career no-hitter and complete game came on a night when he walked six and struck out only two.

Liriano didn’t know he had a no-hitter going until the eighth inning. In fact, he had walked so many White Sox batters that he had no idea he was throwing a no-hitter until the moment of truth was nearly at hand. His suspicions were aroused in the eighth inning.

“When everybody was walking away from me and nobody was talking to me I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ ” Liriano said.

Read more of the story.

The Tampa Bay Rays keep adding to the worst start in franchise history, but insist they’re not overly concerned.

Given their recent matchups when facing Edwin Jackson(notes), the Rays might have a difficult time earning their first win of the season and spoiling the Chicago White Sox’s home opener Thursday.

Tampa Bay has batted a miserable .136 and been outscored 22-7 during its 0-5 start. The Rays haven’t managed more than five hits in any game and have been held to one run in four contests.

One of those lowly performances was Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to the visiting Los Angeles Angels. B.J. Upton(notes) hit his second homer in as many games, and manager Joe Maddon held Manny Ramirez(notes) out of the lineup after he started the season 1 for 16.

“How many games have we’ve played? We’ve got plenty of time,” said Ramirez, who will miss Thursday’s contest against his former team for personal reasons.

Without Ramirez, the Rays are hoping to bounce back at U.S. Cellular Field, where they had a combined 22 runs and 24 hits while winning the final two of a three-game series last April.

Tampa Bay, though, is scheduled to face Jackson (1-0, 3.00 ERA), who became the third pitcher to no-hit the Rays in less than a year on June 25 while with Arizona. The right-hander, who played for Tampa Bay from 2006-08, held on for a 1-0 victory despite walking eight batters and throwing 149 pitches – the most in a nine-inning game in five seasons.

In his only other previous matchup against Tampa Bay in 2009, Jackson allowed three runs and six hits over eight innings in a 5-3 win for Detroit.

Jackson enters this game after yielding three runs and striking out seven in an 8-3 win at Cleveland on Saturday. The White Sox (3-2) seemed to give him plenty of support after batting .314 and scoring 40 runs in their first five games.

They had 18 hits during Wednesday’s 10-7 win in 12 innings in Kansas City after slugger Adam Dunn(notes) underwent an emergency appendectomy Tuesday night. The designated hitter, who homered in his White Sox debut, is expected to miss at least five games.

Carlos Quentin(notes) had a go-ahead two-out double in the ninth inning before the Royals tied it, then hit another double to open the 12th. Quentin also had his second home run of the season during a four-hit afternoon.

The White Sox might not need Quentin’s or Dunn’s help against David Price(notes) (0-1, 5.14), who is 0-3 with a 5.00 ERA in three career matchups with Chicago. The left-hander struck out seven in Friday’s season opener against Baltimore, but allowed four runs over seven innings in a 4-1 defeat.

“I felt good. But when you’re going against another team’s No. 1 and give up four runs, you’re going to lose,” said Price, who was 19-6 with a 2.72 ERA and finished second in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2010. “I’ve got to get better.”

After losing six of eight matchups with the White Sox in 2009, the Rays claimed last season’s series by a 4-3 margin.