Sale finally stumbles as Chicago White Sox fall to Cleveland
A Perfect 10 he is not.
“Ran into a buzz saw,” said Chicago White Sox No. 1 starting pitcher Chris Sale. “Had a bad night.”
Looking to become just the eighth pitcher to win his first 10 starts to open the season, Sale finally showed some flaws in a 6-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.
As he has done in the past after rare bad outings, Sale pointed the finger of blame into his own chest.
“I'm not going to pinpoint this or that,” Sale said after his record dropped to 9-1. “I stunk. I was bad. I was terrible. Embarrassing, quite honestly. It's tough to go out and go 3⅓ (innings). It's tough.
“You leave your team in a tough position, especially after a doubleheader. That's what gets me the most. We played two yesterday. I had to be big for the guys tonight and was the exact opposite.”
Sale was seemingly in good shape early in the game.
The left-hander held Cleveland scoreless through the first two innings while striking out four, and Adam Eaton gave the White Sox an early edge when he led off with a home run against Indians starter Josh Tomlin.
In the third inning, the wheels came off.
“They had some good at-bats against him,” manager Robin Ventura said. “They got to a guy that has been rolling along. He was up there velocity wise. That's uncharacteristic for him. It just seemed like everything seemed a little harder than normal. The changeup probably was a little harder than it has been in the past. I think that separation wasn't as good tonight.”
Not only did the Indians score 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks with two outs in the third, they made Sale throw a staggering 43 pitches.
Mike Napoli's 2-run triple was the key hit for the Indians, and the drive landed between center fielder Austin Jackson and left fielder Melky Cabrera, who did a poor job of communicating.
Cleveland tagged on 3 more runs in the fourth inning, with Francisco Lindor's one-out single ending Sale's night early.
Sale allowed 6 earned runs on 7 hits and 4 walks while throwing 89 pitches. His ERA, which was 1.58 entering the game, jumped to 2.26.
Was Sale victimized by a mechanical flaw? Was he possibly tipping his pitches?
“I'm not a big fan of this, but after watching video, I figured out some things and saw some stuff that I was doing,” Sale said. “I've just got to tighten that up and move on.”
The White Sox's offense didn't come close to providing enough support for Sale.
After Eaton got the Sox off to a promising start, the only other run came in the fourth inning whe Jose Abreu doubled and scored on Brett Lawrie's double.
It was a remarkable dash out of the gates for Sale, but he finally stumbled and fell.
“Nine wins didn't get me anything tonight,” Sale said. “So why am I going to look for that? I've just got to be better. We didn't lose. I lost.”