Corey Kluber pitched six shutout innings and reached eight victories before any AL pitcher as the Cleveland Indians rolled to their fifth straight win, 9-1 Wednesday over the sagging Chicago White Sox to complete a series sweep.

 

Spotted a nine-run cushion after four innings, Kluber (8-2) had little trouble with baseball's worst team.

 

The defending Cy Young Award winner allowed three hits, struck out 10 and improved to 4-0 with a 0.33 ERA in four starts against Central Division teams this season.

 

Melky Cabrera drove in three runs off Reynaldo Lopez (1-4) and Michael Brantley extended his MLB-high hitting streak to 19 games for Cleveland, which used the series to gain some confidence and momentum. The Indians have scored 43 runs during their win streak.

 

Jose Ramirez and Edwin Encarnacion connected for back-to-back homers in the fourth off Chris Volstad as the Indians opened a 9-0 lead.

 

The White Sox committed two more errors, dropped their fourth in a row and fell to 16-37. Chicago had five errors in the three-game series.

 

Yolmer Sanchez homered leading off the ninth as the White Sox avoided a shutout.

 

Kluber is 5-0 with a 1.26 ERA at Progressive Field, and he didn't walk a batter for the fourth straight start.

 

Chicago's Yoan Mocada led off the first with a single off Kluber, who then struck out eight of the next 12 and spent the rest of the day fine-tuning his already fine-tuned collection of pitches.

 

Cabrera's two-run double highlighted a five-run third for the Indians. They had Lopez in trouble in the first inning, but let the right-hander escaped by giving up only two runs.

 

Brantley singled in the first when the Indians took a 2-0 lead against Lopez, whose wild pitch brought in Greg Allen with Cleveland's first run before Cabrera delivered a one-out sacrifice fly.

 

Since moving into the No. 2 spot in Cleveland's order, Brantley is batting .368 (29 of 79) with six homers, 18 RBIs and 20 runs scored.

 

The Sox will have the night off as LHP Hector Santiago starts against Milwaukee in the opener of a three-game series Friday.