‘ L’ of an outing for superb Sale
Lefty strikes out 14, goes the distance, but King Felix prevails
By nearly every measure, White Sox left- hander Chris Sale shined.
Sale stymied the Mariners for his fifth complete game, which leads the majors. He had 14 strikeouts, one shy of his career high. He allowed no walks for the fifth time this season.
Yet the fiery southpaw fell short in the only category that really matters to him. He took the loss as the Sox fell 3- 1 to Felix Hernandez on Friday night.
So much for those other statistics.
“I guess it looks good on paper,” Sale said in a quiet locker room. “You want to come out on top in a game like that, no doubt. It was a grind from the first pitch. It just didn’t fall our way.”
Two blunders on the basepaths didn’t help the Sox’ cause. Todd Frazier and J. B. Shuck were caught in rundowns in back- to- back innings to help Hernandez escape jams and keep his pitch count low.
Frazier homered in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to two, but the Sox couldn’t overcome their early miscues. In the eighth, Tim Anderson and Jose Abreu left the bases loaded after failing to hit the ball out of the infield.
“We didn’t run the bases very well tonight,” manager Robin Ventura said. “That ends up costing you. You’re getting something going against them, and it just takes the wind out of your sails.”
Sale ( 15- 7) allowed runs in the second, third and fourth innings before finding his groove. He retired 16 consecutive batters and threw 120 pitches. He struck out the side in the sixth and seventh innings for a half- dozen strikeouts in a row.
“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 working really well.
“Omar [ Narvaez] back there was really in sync tonight. He and I were going back and forth, even between innings in the dugout. He got me through that one pretty good tonight.”
Narvaez caught Sale for only the second time in his career. The rookie backstop said he felt comfortable in meeting with the five- time All- Star before the game to discuss how to approach each hitter.
“He’s a great guy,” Narvaez said. “You can talk to him anytime. He’s an amazing pitcher. He has a lot of confidence, and that’s pretty much everything. The confidence he has on the mound, you can see it from everywhere.”
Sale maintained his trend of outstanding performances on five days of rest. He’s 10- 5 with a 2.85 ERA, 129 strikeouts and 22 walks when pitching with at least one extra day off between starts. On four days of rest, he’s 5- 2 with a 3.86 ERA, 50 strikeouts and 16 walks.
“We’ve just noticed when he gets that extra day, he’s got a little more life to it,” Ventura said. “He can go out there a little bit longer. He’s crisper.”
The advantage is not only physical.
“It’s mental, too,” Ventura said. “He knows in his head that he’s got the extra day, and there’s a day in between there somewhere where it becomes a little bit easier for him. There’s never been a question about that. He’s always better when he gets one extra day.”
But he happened to be facing the Mariners’ best pitcher.
“If I wasn’t pitching tonight, I would have been watching every pitch,” Sale said. “He’s special. His nickname is ‘ King.’ That doesn’t fall on too many people.”