The Walk Off: Chris Sale finds his groove again and wins 12th game
Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start withthe pitcher with the most wins in the majors.
Chicago White Sox starter Chris Sale hasn’t had his best stuff in recent weeks and at times he’s been a bit hard on himself for not maintaining the standards he was setting in the first six weeks of the season.
He looked like tone of the best pitchers in baseball once again Tuesday in becoming the first pitcher in the major leagues to win 12 games as he led Chicago to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Sale gave up four hits and just one run over seven innings while striking out nine.
Sale had been struggling since late-May. He had given up 20 earned runs over his previous five starts going into Tuesday’s game, but he seemed to find that comfort zone once again against the Red Sox.
While Sale hasn’t been as dominant of late, he remains, perhaps, the best pitcher in the American League, albeit for a team that has fallen to fourth place in the AL Central.
A year ago, a pitcher in Chicago took off at this time of the season and eventually went on to win the National League Cy Young Award. Sale might not have a Jake Arrieta-like run in him. Let’s be honest, not many pitchers do. But as long as he keeps winning games and gets back to allowing fewer runs than he has been, Sale will likely be in the AL Cy Young discussion at the end of the season.
Pitching once every five days, there is only so much Sale can do to rekindle whatever it was that was allowing the White Sox to sustain an early season run at the top of the division and the league. But having Sale looking like he has rediscovered his confidence seems like as good a place as any for the White Sox to start.
TOP PERFORMERS
Carlos Correa: Houston’s star shortstop came through in the clutch again with a two-run single in the ninth inning to win it for the Astros. Correa went 2-for-4 and drove in all three of Houston’s runs. He also hit a solo home run.
Charlie Blackmon: Colorado’s leadoff man started the game with a solo home run to right field and followed with another later in the game. He also made a stellar sliding catch in the second inning that likely saved a run in the Rockies 8-4 win over the Yankees.
Corey Kluber: On the heels of the worst outing of his career, Kluber bounced back by allowing only one hit through the first eight innings in a 6-0 win over Tampa Bay. It was Kluber’s third career shutout. He ended up allowing three hits and finished with nine strikeouts.
Conor Gillaspie: The Giants shellacked Pirates pitching with 22 total hits in a 15-4 rout and Gillaspie was responsible for four of them. He went 4-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. It was the first multi-hit game of the season for Gillaspie.
Kurt Suzuki: Minnesota’s veteran catcher went 4-for-5 with six RBIs, including a two-run home run in the Twins’ 14-10 win over Philadelphia. Suzuki finished with three extra base hits.
MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT
Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar is one of the best defensive outfielders in the game and he proved it again Tuesday night robbing Peter O’Brien of extra bases in the fourth inning when he jumped into the center field wall to make a catch on a deep fly ball. Arizona beat Toronto 4-2 but it might have been worse without Pillar making this play.
THE REST OF THE SCOREBOARD
Dodgers 3, Nationals 2: Yasmani Grandal smacked a three-run homer in eighth inning to give the Dodgers a come-from-behind win. The Dodgers are hot with seven wins in their past eight games.
Cardinals 4, Cubs 3: Matt Carpenter and Matt Holiday homered off Jason Hammel in the third inning and St. Louis held off multiple scoring threats later in the game to win for the second consecutive day at Wrigley Field.
Mets 2, Royals 1: Bartolo Colon left the game after one batter when he was hit in the pitching hand with a line drive, but New York’s bullpen rose to the challenge and shut down the Royals.
Padres 10, Orioles 7: Matt Kemp went 4-for-6 with two runs driven in and had four of San Diego’s 15 hits.
Tigers 4, Mariners 2: Mike Aviles’ infield single in the eighth inning gave Detroit the lead for good ruining a strong outing from Seattle starter James Paxton.
Braves 3, Marlins 2: Jace Peterson drove in all three runs for Atlanta with a home run in the eighth inning and an RBI single in the 10th.
Reds 8, Rangers 2: Jay Bruce hit a home run in the first inning and drove in three of six runs scored against Texas starter Colby Lewis, who had flirted with perfection in his last outing.
A’s 5, Brewers 3: Yonder Alonso and Marcus Semien came up with big hits in the seventh inning to break open a tie and lead Oakland to a win it needed. The A’s had lost five of their previous six.
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
