With absolutely no run support, a dominant Chris Sale suffered his fourth loss of the season as the Chicago White Sox blanked the Boston Red Sox 1-0 Friday night at Fenway Park.
Well, this was supposed to be an easy win. One of the best teams in baseball in the Boston Red Sox taking on one of the worst teams in the Chicago White Sox. A dominant pitcher in Chris Sale going against his former team and some pitcher named Dylan Covey.
Prior to the game, this one was chalked up as a win.
Then again, we should’ve known better as the Red Sox offense failed to show up without both Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez in the lineup.
Behind the outstanding pitching of Covey, the Fenway faithful saw their team get blanked by the White Sox 1-0 on Friday night.
The only thing more frustrating as the absence of offense was that Chris Sale was more dominant than Covey.
In pitching eight innings with 10 strikeouts and allowing just one walk, Sale was outstanding. However, in this game, he needed to be flawless and the couple mistakes he made in the top of the seventh inning proved to be the difference in the game.
A leadoff double to Kevan Smith later followed by a one-out, RBI single by Trayce Thompson was all it took to drop Sale to 5-4 on the season. As in control and on target as he was, that one hiccup just took the air out of his overall performance.
"“I mean, with pitching you’re just trying to find a groove and keep rolling with it,” Sale said, via MLB.com. “Just trying to ride the wave as long as you can. Ran into a little hiccup there in the seventh but figured we could come out of it.”"
Obviously, a disappointing loss for Sale. Overall, he is staying positive and certainly bounced back from his previous two starts.
Here are three other things Chris Sale said following the Boston Red Sox 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox to drop their record to 43-21.
100 mph of electric heat
Chris Sale was simply pumped up for this game.
With all the drama he experienced with the Chicago White Sox, facing his former team had a lot of meaning. It’s just too bad his offense didn’t show up.
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On Friday night, the left-handed pitcher showed off some powerful arm strength reaching 100.3 mph on a pitch to strike out White Sox batter Daniel Palka. It was the fastest pitch he has ever thrown as a starter.
So, what contributed to the increased velocity?
Following the game, Chris Sale attributed it to the extra rest he got with Red Sox manager Alex Cora turning to a six-man rotation this week. Also, he was just upset at himself for the last two starts and took revenge on the mound.
"“Give me two extra days, I hope and think that I can get like that every time,” Sale said. “I had a couple extra work days this week, so I was able to get an extended bullpen in and work on some stuff, get back to what I needed to do. Added rest doesn’t hurt anybody.”"
Staring at Chicago White Sox uniforms standing at the plate had to factor in as well. Imagine how much higher his velocity would’ve been if they wore those ugly uniforms he cut up during his time in Chicago.
No offense on Sale Day
With the 1-0 loss, the Boston Red Sox are now 7-7 in games when Chris Sale is on the mound.
In what has become a trend, the offense tends to go silent when the dominance of their ace mowing down opposing team’s batters. Is it simply a mental thing with the team?
Who knows, but it seems Sale brings out the best in the other starter. White Sox starter Dylan Covey didn’t deliver 100 mph fastballs, but he did mix it up with effective sinkers in allowing zero runs and just three hits while striking out seven in over 6.0 IP.
As effective as he was, the absence of both J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts really hurt. In this unexpected pitcher’s duel, one swing of the bat could’ve turned this into a 2-1 win for the Sox.
Boston did have a chance to grab a run in the bottom of the first when Andrew Benintendi led off with a towering double. Following a walk to Brock Holt, Covey bounced back to strike out Xander Bogaerts and then pitched Mitch Moreland into a double play.
They had him on the ropes early, he punched back to KO that minor threat.
Back to Chris Sale, he is not using the silence of the bats during his starts as an excuse, that’s for sure.
"“Everyone would love to have 10 a game but, shoot, look at my last two starts, I flat-out sucked,” Sale said regarding lack of run support. “So I’m not going to sit here and point fingers at anybody. Would I like to have won this game? Absolutely. So would everybody else in here. Kind of selfish of me to say something like that, especially looking at my last two leading up to this one.”"
The fact that Sale refuses to point the finger shows how locked in he is to this team.
Losing motivates winners
The thing to love about Chris Sale in a Boston Red Sox uniform is his competitive nature.
Boston Red Sox
The man just hates losing. His performance Friday night was evidence of that with how ineffective he was in his last two starts. Though the team has now lost three consecutive Sale Day games, the 10 strikeout, one-run performance is all you ask from your ace.
The run support will eventually come, but overall, losing these games is giving Sale the type of motivation that will help the team down the stretch.
He is taking each loss personally and putting it on himself to help the team even more when he takes the mound.
"“I don’t like losing, I hate losing. Not good at losing. I hate it,” Sale said following the game. “You get punched in the face twice and [if] you don’t want to win the next one, this isn’t for you. Just had a little extra incentive that way plus having a couple extra days and getting a little extra work in.”"
Expect Chris Sale to be just as dominant in his next start. If losing two in a row motivates the type of electricity he delivered on the mound Friday night, losing a third game with him on the mound should bring out a similar powerful performance.
Next: Boston Red Sox: Ten Greatest Starting Pitchers of All-Time
The Boston Red Sox offense just has to do their part and score a few runs for the man.