Sale Ties Strikeout Record As White Sox Edge Cardinals In 11th
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Chris Sale forced another avalanche of swings and misses. Helping at the bat, was an unexpected bonus.
The Chicago White Sox lefty matched a major league record by striking out at least 10 in eight straight starts. In his 100th start he also got his first career hit and scored his first career run.
"I got to do a few things I normally don't do," Sale said after the White Sox outlasted the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1, in 11 innings on a home run by Tyler Flowers. "It was fun, it was cool."
Sale struck out 12 in eight innings. The lefty tied the mark set by Pedro Martinez in 1999 with Boston and gets a chance to break it this weekend at home against the Blue Jays -- not that he's paying much attention.
"Those kinds of things don't really matter to me," Sale said. "You start worrying about that stuff right now and we won't be talking about it anymore, that's for sure."
Flowers, the White Sox catcher, said it'll be a surprise the next time Sale doesn't reach double digits in strikeouts.
"If he executes pitches he's hard to catch, much less trying to hit," Flowers said. "I don't see any reason why he can't continue to put up these kind of strikeouts and these numbers."
The White Sox ace had fanned every hitter in the St. Louis lineup by the end of the sixth. He is 0-2 with two no-decisions during the last four games of his streak, getting only four runs of support.
Flowers hit his sixth homer with two outs in the 11th. He connected off Miguel Socolovich (2-1), pitching for the first time in nine days.
"It felt good coming off the bat, it felt good running around the bases," Flowers said. "You don't want to waste those opportunities. Sale did a great job, the bullpen did a good job of giving us a chance."
Socolovich wanted the pitch out of the strike zone, "but I think I left it on the plate and he put a good swing on it."
Daniel Webb (1-0) got the win and David Robertson earned his 16th save in 20 chances.
Randal Grichuk homered into Big Mac Land and doubled for the Cardinals, whose nine-game home winning streak ended.
Both teams recorded 14 strikeouts. White Sox leadoff man Adam Eaton fanned four times and rookie Xavier Scruggs struck out three times for St. Louis, the first two times against Sale.
"It's good to get out there and face that type of competition," said Scruggs, who entered batting .474. "You always want to face the best, but yeah, he had his stuff today, and hats off to him."
Sale struck out the side in the third. He got his 10th strikeout against Jhonny Peralta in the sixth.
Sale singled leading off the third, advanced on a groundout and scored on Jose Abreu's one-out hit off the second-base bag. Sale had been 0 for 8 with six strikeouts in his career.
St. Louis starter Lance Lynn allowed a run on six hits in six innings, but needed 117 pitches. In the second, he bailed out second baseman Pete Kozma, whose dropped relay cost a double play, and escaped without damage.
"A lot of deep counts and a lot of balls that found holes and things like that," Lynn said. "But I was able to get through six and only give up one run.
"When you're having what you would call a bad night and that's the end result, you'll take it."
TRAINER'S ROOM
White Sox: Reliever Dan Jennings (neck) made his third rehab appearance Monday for Triple-A Charlotte, working two scoreless innings.
Cardinals: LHP Jaime Garcia has not thrown a bullpen session since cramping in his groin in his last start last Wednesday and is a question mark for Thursday's start.
UP NEXT
Chicago's Jose Quintana is 2-6 in his last 12 starts but with a 3.10 ERA. John Lackey is 7-1 with a 2.08 ERA in 13 career starts in St. Louis, including 5-1 with a 1.91 ERA this year.
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