It’s Sale Boston in KC, too
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the end, the Red Sox “got the dub,” as Chris Sale put it, so he was happy.
But just before the end, when Sale could not play the final note of his masterpiece and had to be relieved with two outs left in last night’s 8-3 victory against the Kansas City Royals, he admitted to not being so happy. He told manager Johh Farrell that he could finish the ninth, but a walk, two-run home run and single proved otherwise.
That allowed Sale to prove his true colors and fighting spirit.
“I don’t want to tell John I can do something that I can’t get done — that goes for anything,” Sale said. “I’ll never settle. When you start settling, you get complacent, when you get complacent, you suck. That’s not my style.”
Before the walk, Sale had retired 19 consecutive batters and looked to be well on his way to his second consecutive complete game and 16th of his career. But he allowed a two-run home run to Jorge Bonifacio, and while Fernando Abad warmed up in the bullpen, Brandon Moss singled.
Out came Farrell, and it would not have been surprising to see steam come out of Sale’s ears.
After Abad came on to get a 1-6-3 double play to end the game, Sale was one of the first players to bound out of the dugout to join the conga line of high fives.
“Obviously I was a little pissed off,” said Sale, who finished with 110 pitches. “You get over it, obviously, because we’re still winning the game. Once that last out’s recorded, we’re all smiles. A little frustrated, but in the end, we still got our goal done, getting the win. We’re good.”
Said Farrell: “(Sale) was outstanding tonight. He got on a roll in this game and continued to put together a streak of consecutive retired batters. Pitch count was well in check as far as going out for the ninth inning despite the lead that we had. He wasn’t really stressed throughout the ballgame and was in great position to finish this one. A night to give the bullpen another much-needed day down, but he was in complete control of this one.”
Sale improved to 9-3 and matched the Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer for most starts (five) of at least eight innings this year. He also broke a major league tie with Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers with his 12th start of at least seven innings. The Sox ace notched 10 strikeouts for the second game in a row after going through a four-game “dry spell.”
It was Sale’s 45th career double-digit strikeout game, third-most among active pitchers, trailing only Scherzer and Kershaw. If he can get one more double-digit strikeout game before the AllStar Game, that would give him 11, which would match Pedro Martinez for most by a Red Sox pitcher before the break. His 146 strikeouts lead the majors.
Mike Moustakas gave the Royals a lead in the second inning with a solo homer before Sale really got on a roll. Kansas City’s lone baserunner after the homer and before the ninth-inning walk was Alcides Escobar, who singled to lead off the third inning.
“Just going out there and trying to find a rhythm, Sandy (Leon) behind the plate doing what he does usually for me, just trying to find a groove and stay with it,” Sale said.