Chris Sale stayed locked in and pitched the Chicago White Sox past the Houston Astros 3-1 at a rainy U.S. Cellular Field on Monday.
Sale (6-2) turned in another lights-out performance with eight innings of one- run ball. The flame-throwing lefty allowed just five hits, walked one and struck out 14 to become the first player franchise history to record four straight starts of 10-plus punchouts. He's also the first player since Randy Johnson in 2001 with three consecutive games of at least a dozen strikeouts.
Avisail Garcia belted a two-run homer to back Sale's effort and help snap the club's two-game slide.
The loss somewhat spoiled the major-league debut of 20-year-old shortstop Carlos Correa. The first overall pick in the 2012 draft immediately became the youngest player in baseball and recorded an RBI single in his second at-bat.
The Astros dropped their fifth straight despite another quality start from Lance McCullers (2-1), who was saddled with the loss for the first time in his young career.
Jonathan Villar nearly made a running catch at the wall in the home second, but the ball popped out of his glove. Adam LaRoche was credited with a leadoff double and later scored the game's first run on a Melky Cabrera base hit.
Sale appeared to get out of a second-and-third, no-out jam in the fourth with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout by Correa. Correa was originally called out on his grounder in the hole at short, but replay showed he beat the throw by a half-step and was awarded a memorable first hit.
The run ended a string of 22 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings for Sale, but his offense gave him the lead right back when Garcia, with a man on second, drilled an outside pitch the other way and over the right-field wall for a go- ahead homer in the bottom half.
Sale struck out the side in the eighth to offset a one-out double by George Springer, and David Robertson closed out the gem with his 11th save in the ninth.
Game Notes
Rain delayed the first pitch 25 minutes and caused a 38-minute stoppage in the top of the third ... Sale, who was one strikeout shy of a career high, has pitched into the eighth inning in five of his last six starts and improved to 3-1 with a 0.56 ERA and 47 strikeouts in four career outings against the Astros ... Jose Altuve recorded two of Houston's five hits ... McCullers struck out seven in as many innings and allowed just four hits ... The Astros had three picks in the first round of Monday's first-year player draft: second overall (LSU shortstop Alex Bregman), fifth overall (Kyle Tucker, the brother of current Astros outfielder Preston Tucker), and 37th (Daz Cameron, the son of former big-leaguer Mike Cameron) .... The White Sox selected Vanderbilt pitcher Carson Fulmer in the eighth slot.
[SportsNetwork.com]
