Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale made history Tuesday night as he tied a Major League record by striking out 10+ hitters in eight consecutive starts. Sale fanned 12 St. Louis Cardinals Tuesday night to tie the record and join Pedro Martinez as the only pitchers to accomplish the feat. Sale did not get credit for the win, but the White Sox (33-42) defeated the Cardinals (51-25) 2-1 in 11 innings.
Sale pitched eight innings, allowing one earned run on six hits while walking one. Fans will remember this game, though, for his record-tying 12-strikeout performance.
Sale struck out nine different Cardinals hitters, including two strikeouts each of Peter Bourjos, Jhonny Peralta, and Xavier Scruggs. He got six other Cardinals once each. Scruggs and Mark Reynolds also fanned after Sale left, giving White Sox pitchers 14 strikeouts on the night.
Barring any changes to the White Sox' rotation, Sale will have his chance to break the record with his ninth straight 10-K game on Monday, July 6, against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Sale also got his first Major League hit and scored his first run. He singled to open the top of the third, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored on Jose Abreu's RBI single up the middle that got away from second baseman Pete Kozma. The run put the White Sox up 1-0. Sale is now 1 for 11 with a run scored in his career.
St. Louis tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Randal Grichuk sent Sale's 0-1 change-up into Big Mac Land in left field's upper deck at Busch Stadium.
Grichuk's home run (7) was all the scoring the Cardinals would get.
After the teams traded zeroes from the fifth inning on, Chicago broke the 1-1 tie in the top of the 11th. Tyler Flowers lined a solo home run (6) over the center-field wall to give his team a 2-1 lead that closer David Robertson (S: 16) protected. Robertson gave up two singles but no runs. Daniel Webb (W: 1-0, 0.00) earned the win by getting the final two outs in the bottom of the 10th.
Miguel Socolovich (L: 2-1, 2.31) allowed Flowers's home run to take the loss. It was the only hit he allowed in his lone inning, and he struck out two. Cardinals starter Lance Lynn was terrific for six innings, allowing one run on six hits while walking one and fanning six.
On Wednesday, Jose Quintana (3-7, 3.95) pitches for Chicago against the Cardinals' John Lackey (6-4, 3.35). The game begins at 8:15 p.m. EDT.