CLEVELAND — The White Sox pounded five home runs in the first five innings Thursday, all of them against Guardians rookie right-hander Hunter Gaddis, and opened up a big lead in their important one-game stop in Cleveland.
The five homers against one pitcher tied a Cleveland record, most recently set against Luis Tiant against Boston in 1969.
Gavin Sheets, Andrew Vaughn, Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal and Elvis Andrus went deep for the Sox (73-70), who entered the game trailing first-place Cleveland (76-65) by four games in the AL Central with 19 to play. The Sox have hit 28 home runs in their last 16 games.
Sheets hit hit a two-run homer in the second inning, Vaughn homered after Sheets with his team-high 16th, Moncada homered in the third, Grandal in the fourth and Andrus in the fifth.
The Sox’ record for homers in a game is seven.
The Sox are four games behind the Guardians in the loss column and have three games left against them next week at Guaranteed Rate Field. One victory against the Sox clinches the season series and tiebreaker for Cleveland.
Lance Lynn pitched 61/3 innings of two-run ball for Sox, who led the Guardians 7-2 after the seventh. Lynn struck out six, walked one, allowed six hits and lowered his ERA to 3.99.
Lynn owns a 1.43 ERA in his last seven starts.
He was replaced by Aaron Bummer.
