Any day you join a club that counts Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez as its only other members is a good day.
On Friday, Chris Sale had a good day, even if his Chicago White Sox decidedly did not.
By punching out 14 Texas Rangers, Sale became just the third pitcher in baseball history to record at least 12 strikeouts in five consecutive starts. Johnson did it in 1998 and Martinez in 1999, MLB.com's Greg Garno and Scott Merkin noted, and they both have a bust in Cooperstown.
Sale flirted with history of another kind, retiring the first 17 hitters he faced, and wound up nailing down eight frames of two-hit, shutout ball.
His dominance, though, went for naught, as Texas plated a pair of runs in the ninth off Chicago closer David Robertson and walked away with an improbable 2-1 victory.
With the loss, the White Sox fell 10 games below .500 and cemented their status as cellar-dwellers in the American League Central.
That's a shame, because the ace of their staff is pitching like a guy who deserves to start the All-Star Game, as ESPN's Keith Law opined:
How good has Sale been? Since May 12, he's pitched into the seventh inning in every start and has gotten through the eighth five times. During that span, he's racked up 93 strikeouts while walking just 10 and surrendering a scant nine earned runs.
Even after missing time early with a foot injury suffered while unloading his truck in the spring, Sale now leads the AL with 119 strikeouts. Sonny Gray is having a fine season with the Oakland A's, and Dallas Keuchel and Chris Archer are breaking out for the first place Houston Astros and Tampa Bay Rays, respectively.
At the moment, Sale might be the best of the bunch.
This is nothing new, of course. The 26-year-old southpaw eclipsed the 200-strikeout plateau in each of the last two seasons and, not coincidentally, finished among the top five in American League Cy Young balloting.
If he keeps dealing like he has been, Sale could get over the hump and win the award, though he won't get support from voters who unfairly penalize players for their teams' poor performance.
After Friday's wasted gem, Sale was asked about the lack of run support and deflected the question, per David Just of the Chicago Sun-Times:
That's kind of a crappy question to ask, really. You think I'm gonna say something bad about one of my teammates, you're dead wrong. We have a bunch of fighters in here. We have guys that come in here every single day and play as hard as they can, plain and simple.
Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Tonight it didn't, and it hasn't for a few games. But that doesn't mean that we’re doing anything different or going to point a finger at anybody.
Kudos to Sale for refusing to throw anyone under the bus. Let's face facts, though: Chicago's issues go a lot deeper than "a few games." A team that added flashy pieces in the offseason and was a trendy pick to win the division has vacillated between listless and downright awful.
There's still time to right the ship, but with the defending AL champion Kansas City Royals leading the pack (and crashing the All-Star ballot) and the powerful Detroit Tigers and surprise Minnesota Twins also in the mix, the White Sox's prospects are as bleak as the South Side sky in late December.
Consider Sale a ray of sunshine. Even if the Sox go nowhere in 2015, they've got their stud signed through the 2019 campaign. And with the way he's been throwing, he's a foundation worth building on, one of the very best arms in an era bursting with elite hurlers.
Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Chris Sale—has a nice ring, doesn't it?
All statistics current as of June 19 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
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