Sale flashes old form as White Sox roll over Athletics, 6-2
Until they are mathematically eliminated, the White Sox are going to play as if they have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs.
It's either trick the mind or roll over and die, and the second choice is not an appealing option.
Given that scenario, Saturday night's 6-2 decision over the Athletics at U.S. Cellular win was a good combination of pitching, offense and defense, particularly by center fielder Adam Eaton.
But with the Sox mired in fourth place in the American League Central and staring up at seven teams in the wild-card chase, individual achievement has become as noteworthy as wins or losses.
Take Chris Sale, for example.
The White Sox's ace lefty was the AL starter in the All-Star Game and the odd's-on favorite to win the Cy Young Award at the break.
Heading into Saturday's start against Oakland, Sale was 0-3 with a 3.03 ERA in 5 starts over the second half. In his last 6, he was 0-4 with a 4.43 ERA.
Sale (15-6) regained his old form against the A's, allowing 3 hits over 8 scoreless innings. He also had 8 strikeouts and won for the first time since July 2.
"It was kind of getting over the hump for me," Sale said. "My last few times out, I haven't been as good as I've wanted to be or as good as I've needed to be. Coming in and getting this one after a loss, we'll fight for this series tomorrow so it was important."
Sale threw 120 pitches and was happy to go 8 innings.
"Just kind of getting deeper into the game, I think Navy (catcher Dioner Navarro) did a great job of mixing in and out," Sale said. "He's calling two-seamers and four-seamers, both sides of the plate. Front-door, backdoor breaking balls, stuff like that.
"I give him the credit for all that. I felt like for the most part I was executing a lot of my pitches."
A lack of offense was the main reason Sale's winless streak stretched out so long, but the Sox picked him up early while building a 5-0 lead after three innings.
"That alleviates a little bit of the pressure," Sale said. "You see your guys fighting. I think it was the third inning, we scored (2 runs) with two outs.
When stuff like that goes on, you kind of feed off of that and build momentum and try to execute some pitches."
Sale didn't predict an extended run of success that's going to vault the White Sox back into the playoff race, but he promised they'd play competitive baseball.
"Nobody in here has given up," Sale said. "We have too much pride in ourselves and what we do. When you look around this clubhouse, we have some pretty good guys, guys that compete. At the end of the day that's all you can ask for. Anything that happens after that, you can live with it."