Cleveland’s manager and players knew, Indians fans knew, the media knew. Justin Masterson? He insists he wasn’t aware of how bad his losing streak was.Masterson (1-5), acquired from Boston last July 31 in the Victor Martinez trade, said he had gained some confidence with his solid outing at Yankee Stadium his last time out. Still, he hadn’t won in 17 starts since beating the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 20.The streak-buster wasn’t pretty — five hits, six walks and two hit batters in 5 2/3 innings — but it finally gave the last-place Indians some good news.They would have had a perfect game pitched against them Wednesday if not for an umpiring mistake. They were routed by Detroit the next day. And a few hours before Friday’s game, All-Star centerfielder Grady Sizemore underwent season-ending knee surgery.The trip to the South Side came along at just the right time. The Indians are 7-3 against the White Sox, 13-30 against everybody else.In losing for the ninth time in its last 13 home games, the Sox fell to 23-31.In games after victories, the White Sox are 4-19.John Danks (4-5) took a 1-0 lead into the sixth but couldn’t get out of the inning. Shin-Soo Choo doubled, Austin Kearns walked and Russell Branyan singled before Jhonny Peralta — who had four hits and four RBI — doubled off the left-field wall to put Cleveland ahead.After Branyan was thrown out at home on Travis Hafner’s grounder, Duncan hit an RBI double and Luis Valbuena chased Danks with a run-scoring single to make it 4-1.Danks, who allowed four runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings, is 1-5 with a 5.05 ERA since going 3-0 with a 1.55 ERA in April. He has a 3-6 career record against the Indians, including 0-4 at home.The only run off Masterson came on Alexei Ramirez’s homer, but the White Sox had multiple baserunners every inning against him.In the sixth, Masterson walked Mark Kotsay on four pitches and hit Carlos Quentin with a 2-1 delivery, but A.J. Pierzynski grounded into a double play on the next pitch. After Ramirez walked, reliever Frank Herrmann made his major league debut and got Gordon Beckham to fly out.Herrmann was called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Columbus, where he had a 0.31 ERA and finished with a scoreless streak of 27 1/3 innings.The 26-year-old right-hander immediately helped the AL’s most-generous bullpen (5.58 ERA entering Friday), retiring all four batters he faced. Jensen Lewis and Rafael Perez followed with a scoreless inning each.Peralta made it 6-1 in the seventh with another two-run double. In the eighth, Kearns had a two-run homer and Trevor Crowe added a two-run triple.

 NOTES—To make room for Herrmann, the Indians designated RHP Jamey Wright for assignment. The 35-year-old righty was 1-2 with a 5.48 ERA in 18 relief appearances…..Paul Konerko got the night off. Going into Friday, he was tied for the AL lead with 16 HRs but he has a career .182 average against Masterson. Kotsay, his replacement, drew three walks…..The Indians’ record for most losses in a row by a pitcher is 13, by Guy Morton in 1914.