No doubt that Sale can bounce back from 1st loss

CHICAGO — In the immortal words of White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson, no problem, big guy. You can’t win ’em all. Really, you can’t. Not even if you’re Chris Sale.

If anything, it might have been wise to let Eddie Cicotte hold onto some of those distinctions he racked up in 1919. We know how that season ended on the South Side.

Sale did not want to get whacked around by the Indians on Tuesday night, trust me. But allowing six runs in 3 1/3 innings, and reminding all of us that he’s just as mortal as he’s always been, probably wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened to Sale and the White Sox.

His 9-0 start with an American League-leading ERA through nine starts had drawn more attention to him than anything he’d done so far in a career that’s been remarkable for a long time now. He’s had other great stretches, but none of them were right out of the gate, so in some ways he was being celebrated as if he’d just come on the scene.

Hardly. The guy has been an All-Star in each of his four previous seasons as a starter. He’s gonna bounce back from the 6-2 loss to the Indians just fine.

As for the loss, you knew Sale wouldn’t make excuses, and he didn’t.

“Just chalk it up as a bad night,” Sale said. “I stunk. I was bad. I was terrible. Embarrassing, quite honestly.”

Sale needed 89 pitches to get 10 outs, and 43 of those came in the third inning. He was fine physically — which is why White Sox manager Robin Ventura said he didn’t get a reliever up in the bullpen during that long inning — and should hit the mound on Sunday in Kansas City like a man on a mission.

It’s the same mission he’s been on since he started his workouts last November — to take down the Royals in the AL Central and experience postseason baseball for the first time. He never lost that focus, but his perfect season was making him the story, not his team.

Had Sale beaten the Indians with one of his normal outings, he’d have become the first White Sox pitcher to win each of his first 10 starts since Cicotte, of the infamous Black …

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