Levine: Sale Only Human In Loss To Kansas City
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- One of the most dominant pitchers in baseball the last two months proved to be merely good and certainly human Sunday in his first loss since late June.
White Sox ace Chris Sale allowed four runs, three coming via the home run ball, in 6 1/3 innings in 4-1 loss to the Royals. As if it was scripted, Kansas City played a flawless game in the field, supporting a fine outing by Danny Duffy, who shut out Chicago on five hits through eight innings before allowing a run in the ninth.
The one bright spot for the White Sox was the continued good play and energy brought to the table by 25-year-old rookie third baseman Tyler Saladino. Called up a week ago after a long stint in the minor leagues, Saladino has been the energizer for a team that has lacked on-field chemistry from the beginning of this disappointing season. Saladino hit his first big league homer Sunday, knocking one out of the park against Duffy in the ninth inning, and is batting .308 on the season.
Sale's record at home this season is only 3-2, which belies his 2.60 ERA at U.S. Cellular Field.
"This is just frustrating all the way around," Sale said. "You come out, and you're playing hard. We are grinding it out. We are playing as hard as we can. That is all you can really ask. We had some bad luck along the way also. Sometimes you have to shake the bad luck before you get on a good role."
Saladino has stood out for a team that appears to play the same game on offense every day. Chicago's 3.3-run average per game is the lowest offensive output in either league. Averaging less than the 15 National League teams that use a pitcher to hit rather than a DH is totally mystifying.
Run differential has been a really difficult obstacle to climb over for Chicago. They are a minus-77 in that department, second-worst in baseball.
"We had some opportunities that we didn't take advantage of," manager Robin Ventura said after the team's fourth loss in five games. "We had a second and third situation we did not take advantage of. Anything that we hit hard -- they have a really good defense and they showed it off today."
Saladino refused to gloat about his first major league home run.
"The home run is nice," he said. "Especially the first one. At the end of the day, if we don't win, that's all that really matters. The home run is just a moment, but no win for us at the end of the day."
The White Sox are 13-38 when they score three runs or fewer in 2015.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
