The Cleveland Guardians eliminated the possibility of the Chicago White Sox “having the number” with a 8-4 win on the Fourth of July.

The Sox have only 25 wins this year, and 20 percent of those wins are over the Guardians.

Ben Lively took the mound for Cleveland, and he delivered six solid innings of work to improve his record to 8-4.

He struck out six batters, and the bullpen (Scott Barlow, Hunter Gaddis, and Nick Sandlin) whiffed six more White Sox over the final three innings.

SMALL BALL

Cleveland scored several runs on ground balls or by capitalizing on Chicago mistakes.

For example, Josh Naylor singled in the first inning. Right fielder Tommy Pham misplayed the ball, allowing Angel Martinez to score.

Chicago tied the game in the second, but Steven Kwan untied it with a solo home run in the third.

Cleveland picked up three more runs in the inning. Martinez raced home on a fielder’s choice by Josh Naylor, and Bo Naylor hit a two-run single to score his brother and Jhonkensy Noel.

The Guardians extended their lead to 7-1 in the fifth inning on a fielder’s choice grounder by Andres Gimenez and a bases-loaded walk by Kwan.

Gimenez knocked in Cleveland’s final run on another fielder’s choice. Hey, it worked the first time …

FACING THE GIANTS

The Guardians will get a rare visit from the San Francisco Giants tonight. Tanner Bibee (7-2) will start for Cleveland with his first pitch scheduled for 7:10.