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Associated Press OFF BALANCE: Cleveland Indians right fielder Jody Gerut holds onto a fly ball after making a diving catch to get Willie Harris out during the seventh inning.

CHICAGO (AP) — Jose Valentin was much happier to be swinging away.

Valentin hit a game-ending two-run homer and drove in five runs and Frank Thomas hit a three-run homer to help Chicago beat Cleveland 11-9 Tuesday night, after nearly squandering an eight-run lead.

Jose Jimenez (1-5) hit Thomas to lead off the 10th inning and Carlos Lee flied out to the warning track before Valentin followed with a homer to right.

"If Carlos got a hit I was going to bunt him over, so in a way it was lucky that Carlos flew out," Valentin said.

Relief ace

Chicago reliever Shingo Takatsu (4-0) pitched the last two innings and retired the first five batters he faced. Ronnie Belliard singled in the 10th to end Takatsu's streak of batters retired at 29, and Ben Broussard walked before Takatsu struck out Coco Crisp to end it.

"He's the man of the hour for the Chicago White Sox. We found a guy who can close games," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. "In spring training I didn't think he would make the team, but ever since spring training he's been amazing."

Belliard hit a three-run homer, Matt Lawton hit a two-run homer and Crisp hit a tiebreaking solo homer for Cleveland.

Crisp homered off White Sox reliever Damaso Marte in the eighth inning to take a 9-8 lead after trailing 8-0 in the fourth inning.

"These guys are going to focus on the positive. The fact of the matter is you come back against a team like this, this far down — that's special," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We didn't finish it off, we weren't able to get the win, but there was so many other good things that happened throughout the course of this game."

The White Sox came back in the eighth to tie it at nine. Lee hit a leadoff double off Matt Miller and Cliff Bartosh gave up an RBI double to Valentin. Indians reliever David Riske came in and got three consecutive outs to strand Valentin.

Trailed early

Indians starter Scott Elarton allowed three runs in the first inning on four walks and one hit. He only got two outs before being lifted in his third start for Cleveland.

Elarton started the season with Colorado, going 0-6 with a 9.80 ERA in eight starts.

Kazuhito Tadano relieved and gave up back-to-back singles to Aaron Rowand and Joe Crede. Two outs later, Uribe hit an RBI single and Thomas followed with a three-run homer to left, his 18th homer of the season. Lee and Valentin followed with back-to-back doubles off Tadano. Lee scored on Valentin's double, making it 8-0.

Chicago starter Esteban Loaiza retired the first 11 batters he faced before Travis Hafner singled in the fourth.

The hit was initially called an error by the official scorer, but was changed to a hit later in the game.

After only getting one hit in the first four innings and trailing 8-0, the Indians scored six runs on seven hits off Loaiza in the fifth.

Jody Gerut and Casey Blake led off with singles and Belliard followed with a three-run homer, cutting the Chicago lead to 8-3. Omar Vizquel, Hafner and Victor Martinez all hit run-scoring singles to chase Loaiza and make it 8-6.

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