Sale’s Magic

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Chris Sale

For Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale, if he didn’t have bad luck he would not have any luck at all. In Sale’s six-year Major League Baseball career he has made 180 starts, but he has 97 career no-decisions. Sale’s lifetime record is 50-33 with an earned run average of 2.78, but when he takes the mound every fifth day, the White Sox have been unable to give him consistent quality run support which is still a theme this season. Sale has a record this year of 6-4 with an earned run average of 2.87 in 15 starts for a White Sox club that is currently in the cellar of the American League Central. Offensively the White Sox are near the bottom of most major offensive categories in the AL, but that hasn’t prevented Sale from having a strong 2015.

After getting roughed up in consecutive starts against the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers earlier this season, Sale has been dialed in. Sale began to take his play to another level on May 12 when he went 8 innings while allowing a pair of runs and striking out 11 batters versus the Milwaukee Brewers. In Sale’s last eight starts, he has struck out at least 10 batters in each trip to the mound as he has joined Hall of Fame starting pitcher Pedro Martinez as the only two pitchers in the modern era to accomplish that. Overall Sale has struck out at least 10 batters in sixty percent of his outings so far this season as his 141 punch outs this year lead MLB.

At 6’6″, 180 lbs., Sale might not be gracing the cover of Muscle and Fitness any time soon, but his length and delivery have kept hitters in the AL off balance for quite some time and being that he is a left-handed pitcher, it makes him that much more valuable. Sale has one of the nastiest sliders in all of Major League Baseball as he knows how to work both sides of the plate with it and his changeup is able to keep batters off balance. But make no mistake about it that Sale’s fastball is one of the best in the business as hitters have a very difficult time in catching up to it.

Sale plays in one of the bigger media markets, but being that the White Sox don’t have a quality team around him, he isn’t talked about in the same breath as other dominant starting pitchers of this era in Major League Baseball. You can expect Sale to be named to the American League’s All-Star team next week for the fourth time in his career, but the mounting no-decisions that he continues to receives more than likely will prevent him from gaining serious recognition for the AL Cy Young Award. Sale finished third last season in the AL Cy Young Award voting and as good as he has been, it shows you that one man alone cannot win a baseball game.

Source: Baseball-reference.com

 

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By | 2015-07-02T15:47:49+00:00 July 2nd, 2015|Categories: Major League Baseball|Tags: , |0 Comments

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