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Sale pitches to finish, not blow hitters away
- Updated: May 20, 2016
CHICAGO — Chris Sale was piling up strikeouts at such a prodigious pace last summer that there came a point when he was clearly drawing a bead on the White Sox record.
I asked him if he knew who held the record.
“It’s probably that guy Ed Walsh,” Sale answered. “He’s the guy you always hear about around here, the last guy to do this, the last guy to do that.”
Smart guy, Sale.
Walsh, who pitched for the South Siders from 1904 through ’16, did have the record. It was 269, in the year that the Hall of Famer won 40. Sale broke the record in his final start of the season, fanning seven Tigers to run his total to 274.
Now he’s attached himself to another of the great names in pitching history — Sal “The Barber” Maglie.’
By throwing a four-hitter to beat the Astros, 2-1, on Thursday night at U.S. Cellular Field, Sale ran his perfect record to 9-0 in nine starts, with a 1.58 ERA. He’s the first pitcher to win his first nine starts with a sub-2.00 ERA since Maglie did it for Leo Durocher’s New York Giants in 1952.
No one who witnessed the nine-strikeout, no-walk gem was especially surprised, including the guys he beat.
“He threw everything he wanted for strikes — changeup, slider, fastball, sinker,” said Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, who had a single in four trips to the plate. “No matter the count, he went out there and attacked the hitter. You’ve got to give him credit. For me, he’s the best pitcher in the league right now.”
Watching Sale on a daily basis has been something of a revelation for Jimmy Rollins, the long-time National Leaguer now playing shortstop for the White Sox.
“He’s pretty darn good,” Rollins said. “Obviously what he’s doing hasn’t been done in an awful long time. It’s special. He has a mission. He takes it on himself every time he takes the ball to go nine, and he’s done a damn good job.”
The 27-year-old Sale has been an All-Star each of the last four seasons, earning a reputation for nastiness with his high-90s fastballs, wipeout slider and unfair changeup. But what makes his fast start especially impressive is that …
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