Boston Red Sox: Chris Sale shows he is human in 4-1 loss to Rays

Boston Red Sox All-Star pitcher Chris Sale was dominant until he wasn’t in the team’s 4-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays.

There is a human side to Chris Sale after all. With the Boston Red Sox offense struggling to produce offense against Rays rookie starter Jacob Faria, the dominant lefty had no room for era in his quest to win his 12^th game of the season.

In fact, it was the two homers he surrendered to Rays batters that led to the team’s 4-1 loss at Tropicana Field Thursday night. The biggest blow came in the sixth inning with the team only down 2-1. Cather Wilson Ramos, who drove in three runs overall, took Sale deep for a two-run blast to extend the lead.

When all was said and done, it was Sale’s aggressiveness that led to the deep ball. As any ace pitcher should do, he went after Ramos with a fastball. The result was something the Red Sox starter was not used to seeing.

"“You rarely see good pitches go that far,” Sale said following the game, as transcribed by WEEI. “I haven’t checked, and I probably won’t so I can sleep tonight. It stinks. You don’t want to do that. It just kind of sucked the energy out of us. That’s on me. I have to do better right there, especially later on the game. Sixth, seventh, eighth innings, that’s when you have to bear down. Runner in scoring position right there, got to be better.”"

Dominance continues

Despite the two mistakes and loss, Chris Sale was dominant through most of the game. He struck out 12 batters in all, which extended his major-league lead to 178 on the season.

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Sale was so sharp early on in the game, 8 of the first 10 outs came on strikeouts. Unfortunately, it was the same aggressiveness he showed in the early innings that got him in trouble on the two blasts he surrendered.

But, even with the runs he gave up, he still pitched well enough to get a win. The Boston Red Sox bats, which has showed signs of life until the last two games, were held silent by Faria.

The only Sox run of the game came on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Deven Marrero to give the team an early 1-0 lead.

Although these games happen, Chris Sale had a tremendous first half for the Red Sox. He has been a leader and has shown the kind of competitiveness needed to lead a starting pitching rotation.

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