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, Gaddiss held the Sox to no runs on two hits in six innings.
Guardians catcher Mike Zunino, who had one hit in May, just 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 respectability, but they lost 3-0 Monday with a lackluster offensive performance against Gaddis and the Cleveland bullpen.
The result dropped the Sox, who had three hits, to 19-30, three games behind third place Cleveland in the AL Central.
Jesse Scholtens, recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to take Mike Clevinger’s spot on the 26-man roster after Clevinger landed on the 10-day injured list with wrist inflammation, 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 fastball to Myles Straw that eluded catcher Yasmani Grandal’s backhand attempt with two outs in the inning. It was scored a wild pitch.
The Sox wasted chances 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.
In the bottom of the seventh, manager Pedro 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.
The Sox bullpen had a streak of 19 2⁄3 scoreless innings snapped.