Sale gets back in groove as Sox top Brewers

MILWAUKEE — In his last two starts before taking on the Brewers Tuesday night at Miller Park, Chris Sale pitched a combined 8⅓ innings and allowed 13 earned runs on 16 hits and 7 walks.

“He's trying to do too much,” White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said. “When you see his velocity up a mile and a half, he's trying to strike everybody out with strike one. He's not locating pitches. Chris Sale's best asset, other than physical stuff, forget about stuff and delivery, is his ability to pour in strikes. When he walks five, something ain't going right.”

Before serving a five-game suspension for his role in an April 23 brawl against the Royals, Sale walked five Tigers in his last start.

Returning to face Milwaukee, Sale looked a lot like his old self.

In the Sox' 4-2 win over the Brewers, the 26-year-old ace pitched 8 innings, allowed 2 runs on 3 hits, struck out 11 and walked only one.

Sale was greeted by Jean Segura's leadoff triple in the first inning, and Ryan Braun's RBI groundout gave the Brewers the early lead.

The White Sox went ahead 2-1 in the fifth on Tyler Flowers' RBI double and Micah Johnson's run-scoring single.

In the bottom of the inning, Elian Herrera homered off Sale to tie the game at 2.

Alexei Ramirez's sacrifice fly in the eighth inning scored Jose Abreu to put the Sox in front, and Abreu added an RBI single in the ninth.

Check back later for more details on Sale and the Sox' win over Milwaukee.