In a battle of aces, 'The King' tops Sale, White Sox
It was Elvis night at U.S. Cellular Field Friday, and the King beat the Ace.
In a matchup of two of the top starting pitchers in the American League, "King" Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners beat ace left-hander Chris Sale and the Chicago White Sox, 3-1.
As expected, Hernandez and Sale were both brilliant.
"If I wasn't pitching tonight, I would have been watching every pitch," Sale said. "You run into a guy like that, he's special. There's no doubt about it. I mean, his nickname's the King. That doesn't fall on too many people."
Hernandez (9-4) pitched 7⅓ innings and allowed 8 hits and only 1 run - Todd Frazier's solo homer in the seventh.
The Mariners' veteran right-hander didn't need much help, but poor baserunning by Frazier and J.B. Shuck in the second and third innings kept the Sox's offense bottled up.
Seattle scored single runs off Sale (15-7) in the second, third and fourth, but he was lights out after that.
"He's obviously one of the best pitchers in the league for a reason," Mariners manager Scott Servais said. "We had no chance, really, after the fourth and fifth inning. He got into a groove and got all his pitches working."
Not only did Sale pitch a complete game, he retired the final 16 hitters he faced and finished the night with 14 strikeouts, one shy of his career high.
"I think after the fourth, I found a good cruising speed," Sale said. "I had good tempo, I felt really good with my arm slot, everything was kind of working really well, just really flowing with the game.
"(Catcher) Omar (Narvaez) back there was really in sync tonight. Him and I were going back and forth, even in between innings in the dugout. He got me through that one pretty good tonight."
Sale always tries to focus in on getting opposing hitters out, but he was aware of his mound opponent.
"I think we definitely had a good matchup tonight," Sale said. "It's what people came to see and the wrong team came out on top, it depends on who you ask I guess. Sometimes you run into people like that. You look on the back of (Hernandez's baseball) card, there are a lot of really good numbers. You tip your cap to a guy like that, who goes out there and shuts down our lineup. You move on and come back tomorrow ready to win."
Sale had to be extra sharp to beat Hernandez, but his early struggles wound up taking a toll.
"I guess it looks good on paper, but you want to come out on top in a game like that, no doubt," Sale said. "It was a grind from the first pitch. It just didn't fall our way tonight."