Levine: Chris Sale Earns Mulligan For His Worst Outing Of Season
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The numbers really don't tell you how good White Sox ace Chris Sale has been in the first half of 2016. Despite his worst outing of the season Friday night in an 11-8 loss to the Braves -- he deserves a mulligan for that one -- Sale has been the man all season for his club.
Before Friday night, Sale was the only American League pitcher averaging at least seven inning per start. His five-inning outing against Atlanta dropped him as shade under seven inning per start, but Sale's the obvious favorite to be named the AL starter in the All-Star Game on Tuesday evening.
The only drama will be if AL manager Ned Yost of the Royals decides otherwise.
Until allowing eight runs in five innings Friday, April 30, 2015 was the last time Sale gave up eight earned runs (nine total). The four home runs he surrendered against the Braves matched a career-high from Aug. 23, 2013 against the Rangers.
Friday was only the fourth time in his career he had given up eight earned runs in a major league game.
"That was pretty bad," Sale said. "That's as bad as I could have possibly been in a long time. Stuff like this happens. You throw it away, you discard it. You try not to notice it really happened."
Over his four-and-half-year tenure, White Sox manager Robin Ventura has watched the transition of Sale from flamethrower to crafty pitcher.
"I have seen him change in a lot of ways," Ventura said. "He has grown up to be a leader and a pitcher who is at the top of his game this season."
Sale's 14 wins leads the major leagues.
"Velocity-wise tonight, he just looked mortal," Ventura said. "I don't think he was as sharp. They had some good swings at him. There was some hard contact. This just looked like it wasn't his best stuff."
Monday morning will when Sale hears when he pitches next. Odds are, he will be the first pitcher out for the AL as he makes his fifth straight All-Star Game. Sale has never started the All Star game.
"He has been great for us," Ventura said. "If the talk is about starting the All-Star Game, you know he has been spectacular."
How spectacular? Sale is 14-3 on the season. The combined record of everyone else who has started a game for Chicago is 18-29.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
