Indians tie franchise record with 14th consecutive win

Carrasco tosses complete game against White Sox

CHICAGO — In a season where the Cleveland Indians hope to get one more win than last year, the team has a chance to take its best stretch of baseball farther than a year ago.

Carlos Carrasco was the latest Indians starter to shine with a complete game dismantling of the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night, and the 5-1 victory was Cleveland’s 14th straight win.

The streak is MLB’S longest this season and the Indians have a chance to set a franchise record with 15 straight on Thursday in Chicago, which would top last season’s run of 14 by the eventual American League champions who lost the World Series in Game 7 to the Chicago Cubs.

The win also was the team’s 10th straight on the road and would have been a shutout if not for Adam Engel’s line drive home run with two outs in the ninth inning.

“I was trying to go deep into the game so I can save the bullpen,” Carrasco said, after the bullpen pitched 8 1/3 scoreless innings on Tuesday. “And there’s a lot of energy right now when we play good.”

Carrasco (14-6) allowed three hits, facing 28 batters with 97 pitches in his eighth career complete game. The right-hander said all five of his pitches were working, as he threw 76 strikes.

“He was able to throw all of his pitches for strikes early in the count and then put guys away with sliders,” catcher Roberto Perez said. “He got pretty much ahead of everybody. He was awesome.”

Carlos Santana hit a two-run home run to cap a three-hit night as Cleveland added three runs in the eighth inning to break open a 1-0 game.

After not allowing a hit through four innings, the White Sox had leadoff singles in the fifth and sixth innings off Carrasco, but Avisail Garcia and Kevan Smith were both doubled off on the next at-bat.

Carrasco struck out nine and did not allow a walk. Through his last six starts, Carrasco is 4-1 with a 1.69 ERA.

“I think there’s games, maybe not a ton over the course of a year, where you have everything, where it just falls into place,” Indians manager Terry Francona said.