The Walk Off: Chris Sale joins exclusive club with yet another win
Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.
The win stat for pitchers may have its flaws, but Chris Sale is absolutely earning all of his wins. Make it nine wins in nine starts this season for the Chicago White Sox ace after he pitched a complete game in a 2-1 win over the Houston Astros on Thursday night.
It was a masterpiece. He struck out nine and only needed 107 pitches to go the distance and get the job done, scattering four hits and not allowing a walk. Evan Gattis’ solo shot in the eighth kept Sale from the shutout, but the two runs the White Sox scored earlier in the game were enough with Sale on the mound.
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Sale is the first pitcher to go 9-0 in his first nine starts since Brandon Webb did it for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2008 and the fourth to do it since 1950. The last pitcher to accomplish the feat for the White Sox? Eddie Cicotte, who won his first 12 starts in 1919, a season that stands out in baseball lore for another reason.
This win was a big one for Chicago, too, as it put to an end the team’s four-game losing skid. They’re tied for the most wins in the American League with 25 and when you look at Sale’s run it’s no surprise to see them up there. He’s been every bit as good as his record shows.
TOP PERFORMERS
Stephen Strasburg: While Matt Harvey’s struggles continued, Strasburg continues to show why he was regarded as a generational pitching prospect as he improved to 7-0 this season in the Washington Nationals’ 9-1 win against the New York Mets. Strasburg struck out 10 and gave up one run in six innings.
Matt Carpenter: Carpenter’s main job as the St. Louis Cardinals’ leadoff hitter is to set the table for the rest of the lineup, but he did much more than that as his team beat the Colorado Rockies 13-7. Carpenter went 3-for-5 with two doubles and a home run to give him 6 RBIs in the game.
[StewPod: It’s time to revisit some of our bad predictions]
Carlos Santana: A two home run night from Santana powered the Cleveland Indians to a 7-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds to complete the interleague series sweep.
Jeff Samardzija: Yes, it was against the San Diego Padres, but pitching eight innings and allowing one run on three hits like Samardzija did in San Francisco’s 3-1 win is still impressive.
MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT
Troy Tulowitzki isn’t hitting like he did all those years in Colorado, but he can still play shortstop with the best of them. He did it all on this putout, getting to a ball hit hard up the middle, spinning and making a great throw on the run to rob Joe Mauer of a single in the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie game, a game the Blue Jays went on to take 3-2 in extras thanks to Tulowitzki’s RBI single in the 11th. Tulowitzki’s .669 OPS is unrecognizable, but at least his play in the field hasn’t dropped off at all. Maybe his bat is coming around now, too.
THE REST OF THE SCOREBOARD
Mariners 7, Orioles 2: Adam Lind’s sixth-inning home run broke open a tight game, while starter Nathan Karns gave up one run over five innings.
Brewers 5, Cubs 3: Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Chris Carter homered to lift Milwaukee to an unlikely series win.
Pirates 8, Braves 2: Jeff Locke pitched seven innings of two-run ball and was supported by multi-hit games from John Jaso (3-for-4 with a walk), Gregory Polanco (2-for-5 with a home run) and Jordy Mercer (3-for-5).
Yankees 4, Athletics 1: Carlos Beltran drove in three runs and New York’s three-headed bullpen monster of Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman shut the door in the last three innings.
Angels 7, Dodgers 4: The Angels turned a 4-2 deficit into a 7-4 lead with four runs in the fifth and sixth for their second straight win against their cross-town interleague rivals.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
