CLEVELAND — After scoring 17 runs in winning their first two games of the season, Indians hitters were in siesta mode during a rare Thursday afternoon affair.
Their starting pitcher, Jake Westbrook, was wide awake and unappreciated.
Westbrook produced a sparkling season debut, but his impressive effort was trumped by a better one from White Sox starter John Danks that left Cleveland’s right-hander with an undeserved fate and the Indians with their first loss of the season — a 2-1 decision at Progressive Field.
The loss prevented the Indians from recording their first three-game sweep of the Sox in Cleveland since May of 2003.
Westbrook had little to do with any of it, allowing just two runs on six hits over 71/3 innings. He was perfect through 42/3 innings before walking Jim Thome, and took a no-hitter one out into the fifth until A.J. Pierzynski singled to right-center to ruin the bid.
Danks, who allowed a run on just two hits over 6 1/3 innings, lost his perfect game with a walk to Ryan Garko in the second, but had a no-hitter intact through five innings. Casey Blake’s leadoff single on a ground ball up the middle in the sixth broke it up.
“He did everything he could to give us a chance to win the ballgame,” said Cleveland manager Eric Wedge of Westbrook, who didn’t allow a run in five exhibition starts, striking out 20 batters in 18 innings and holding hitters to a .121 average. “I felt like we had some decent swings early, but as (Danks) started to back up, so did we. He pitched the way he wanted against us and we weren’t able to make the adjustments. The few opportunities we had, we didn’t take advantage of them.”
With both pitchers in command, the game was scoreless through five innings before the Sox landed the first blow on a home run from No. 9 hitter Juan Uribe to lead off the sixth.
The Indians tied it on Garko’s RBI double in the seventh, only to have Joe Crede ruin Westbrook’s day with another leadoff homer to left, this one putting Chicago in front to stay in the eighth inning.
“It’s one of those things,” Westbrook said. “You make two mistakes, and it ends up costing you the ballgame. I can’t feel bad about the way I pitched. It was just the wrong end of the deal.
“I feel like if I can be as consistent as I was today, we’re going to come out on top more often than not. Bottom line, it’s all about team wins.”
That went to the White Sox, who outhit the Indians 7-2 on the day and got flawless relief work from the threesome of Octavio Dotel, Scott Linebrink and closer Bobby Jenks. The trio combined to retire all seven batters it faced over the final three innings.
Dotel got the final out in the seventh to preserve a 1-all tie when it appeared the Indians would do more damage.
Following Garko’s game-tying double, Sox right fielder Jermaine Dye and center fielder Nick Swisher misplayed Franklin Gutierrez’s pop fly into an error, which left runners on second and third with one out.
But Asdrubal Cabrera and Monday’s hero Casey Blake failed to cash in. Cabrera grounded out on a ball that deflected off Crede’s glove at third and right to Orlando Cabrera at short, while Dotel came on to get Blake to fly to center to end the inning.
“It was just one of those days when both pitchers were on and you knew it was going to be a low-scoring game,” Garko said. “They were just able to get two swings of the bat to beat us.”
Still, the Indians won their first series of the season and with a break could have swept the Sox. It’s a good start that they will take some solace in as they open a three-game set in Oakland tonight.  
“You work hard to win series, but we’re not happy with the way things turned out today,” Wedge said. “I feel like those are the types of games that we need to find a way to win.”
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

TONIGHT

WHO: Cleveland at Oakland
TIME: 10:05
WHERE: McAfee Coliseum, Oakland, Calif.
PITCHERS: Byrd (15-8, 4.59 ERA) vs. Duchscherer (3-3, 4.96)
TV/RADIO: SportsTime Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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