White Sox 8, Guardians 3: Shane Bieber shocked, shellacked

The White Sox played in a game where a name-brand starter gave up six runs in an inning after retiring the first two batters, and against all odds, the White Sox weren't the team it happened to.

No, the Sox instead shocked Shane Bieber and the Guardians for six runs in the fifth inning of a scoreless game, which allowed Lance Lynn to pitch into the eighth with relative comfort. They actually scored all eight of the runs with two outs, capped off by a Luis Robert Jr. homer for the fourth straight game.

Robert started the six-run outburst by far quieter means, reaching on catcher interference by Mike Zunino. At the time, the Sox had seven hits and zero runs off Bieber, including a leadoff single by Tim Anderson that was erased by an Andrew Benintendi double play. It was fair to question whether the Sox wasted their two or three best chances to grab the lead, but after Robert knocked off Zunino's mitt, the gloves came off.

Robert only needed one batter to cross the plate, scoring on Yoán Moncada's ultimate hit-and-run single. He dropped a soft line drive in front of right fielder Will Brennan, whose diving attempt kept the ball in front of him, but not right in front of him. He scrambled to his feet, collected the ball and flung it to the cutoff man as fast as he could, but Robert was faster, scoring standing up for a 1-0 lead.

Andrew Vaughn then kept the inning going with a single, and Gavin Sheets came to the plate. He took a fastball below the zone for a strike that evened the count at 1, but Bieber's attempt to backdoor a cutter caught too much of the plate, and Sheets launched a majestic fly to right center for a three-run shot and a 4-0 lead.

Better yet, it wasn't one of those rally-killing homers. Yasmani Grandal shot a single through the left side, and Jake Burger only made Grandal run about 90 of the remaining 270 feet, because his opposite-field fly on an 0-2 slider cleared the right-field wall by a matter of feet for a two-run blast that chased Bieber from the game.

That gave Lynn some breathing room, although the first five innings didn't really affect his heart rate. He needed only 58 pitches to get to that point, retiring the first 11 he faced.

The Guardians finally got on the board in the sixth when Myles Straw's line drive got past a diving Benintendi for a leadoff triple, but a routine sac fly allowed Lynn to return to a windup.

That was the only earned run on Lynn's tab. He allowed two more in the eighth, but only because Anderson had a rough defensive inning. He fired high and wide on a Straw grounder to open the frame, then later fired late to first on Amed Rosario's grounder for an infield single. Anderson did turn a nifty double play after the second miscue, but the first unearned run shouldn't have reached, and the second unearned run scored after two outs because Josh Bell's chopper rolled under Keynan Middleton's glove into no man's land between the mound and first base.

Both rallies fell short of threatening, especially since the Sox answered both of Cleveland's scoring innings with one of their own. Moncada and Vaughn hit two-out doubles for a response run in the sixth. Two innings later, Robert hit a no-doubter with two outs, just when it looked like he'd be the only White Sox regular without a hit. With the way he's rolling, the doubt should've been eliminated before he stepped in the box.

Bullet points:

*Grandal had three hits, leading a 16-hit attack from the White Sox. He was also charged with an error when he fired wildly to first on Brayan Rocchio's chopper in front of home plate. Lynn should've been the one to field it, but Lynn wasn't in position to cover first on a subsequent bouncer to Vaughn, so he's not moving well himself.

*White Sox pitching avoided issuing a walk for the third time this year, although this was the first time they won such a game.

*Bieber had never allowed 12 hits in a game before tonight. His final line: 4.2 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 4 K.

*Lynn lowered his ERA to 6.66.

Record: 15-28 | Box score | Statcast