Few runs, plenty of strikeouts in Sale’s first win with Red Sox
BOSTON— Chris Sale doesn’t seem to care if each of his starts are lowscoring.
He was dominant Saturday in his first victory with Boston, striking out 12 over seven innings in a 2-1win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Sale (1-1) allowed one run on three hits with three walks, and struck out seven of the last nine batters he faced. He has given up just three runs in 212⁄ innings so far with the Red
3 Sox.
“That’s how you like it, man,” he said. “I like that. I like being in those ones that I can be that guy that can get a ‘W’ in those games. If they’ve all got to be like that, so be it. I look forward to the challenge.”
Boston acquired the six-foot-six left-hander from the White Sox for four prospects during the off-season. The Red Sox had lost five of eight games before Saturday. The Rays dropped their fourth in five games.
Tampa Bay’s Jake Odorizzi left his start after throwing one pitch in the second inning with left hamstring tightness and, according to Rays manager Kevin Cash, will end up on the disabled list. The Rays used four relievers.
“Outstanding effort by everybody that pitched after O,” Cash said. “They were asked to do some things that we normally wouldn’t ask of them.”
In each of Sale’s three starts, the Red Sox have done very little offensively, collecting only three total runs. But they got just enough on Saturday.
“Chris Sale: dominant, strong, any adjective you want to attach to it,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “He’s got three power pitches for a lot of swing and miss, and let’s face it the three starts he’s made for us he’s not had any margin of error.”
Sandy Leon’s broken-bat, basesloaded ground out pushed across the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning. The Sox loaded the bases on two singles and a walk against Tommy Hunter (0-1).