Astros can’t solve Sale in loss to White Sox

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CHICAGO — White Sox left-hander Chris Sale won his ninth straight start with a complete game as he outdueled Astros right-hander Collin McHugh in a 2-1 win on Thursday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

Sale became the first pitcher since Brandon Webb in 2008 to win each of his first nine starts and became only the second White Sox pitcher to win his first nine starts, joining Eddie Cicotte, who won 12 straight in 1919.

“I think everybody should know how we feel about him, how I feel about him,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “He’s special. He’s a great pitcher, he’s one of the best in the game. I just see him continuing to get better as the season goes along, as he goes through his career.”

Sale gave up four hits and also struck out nine to pass Doc White and tie Ted Lyons for eighth on the White Sox all-time strikeouts list with 1,073. His effort made up for a slow offensive night for Chicago, which scored its two runs on Jerry Sands’ RBI single in the second and Alex Avila’s sacrifice fly in the seventh. The victory also snapped the club’s four-game losing streak.

“I just try to go out and do my job every fifth day,” Sale said. “That’s all I’m trying to do. [To be] 9-0 is cool, it is. I enjoy it. I enjoyed snapping the skid we were in even more so than that.”

As dominant as Sale was, McHugh’s outing for the Astros is not to be overlooked. He went seven innings and gave up two runs on five hits. He also walked one and struck out eight.

“Sale came as advertised,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s no real surprise as well as he’s pitched. It’s probably as good a stuff that we’ve seen all season. We knew it was going to be a tough, low-scoring game. If we could hang in there enough and give ourselves enough opportunities we’d get a chance, and we couldn’t scratch anything across early. Got the big home run, got a couple of runners on. He was in pretty much control of the game and Collin matched him.”

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