Chris Sale Dominates Yet Again, As The Red Sox Complete Their Third Consecutive Sweep To Win Nine Straight
Thanks for comin’ out, Texas. In order to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox, all the Rangers had to do was defeat Chris Sale, thus ending one of the most dominant runs in MLB history by a starting pitcher. Spoiler alert: They were unable to do that, as Sale became the first pitcher in MLB history to record eleven or more strikeouts and one or fewer walks in five consecutive starts.
In Sale’s last five outings, he has an 0.79 ERA with 59 strikeouts in 34 innings. Cast that net a little wider; over his last seven starts, he’s got an 0.94 ERA with 78 strikeouts in 48 innings. He hasn’t allowed a single home run over his last seven starts and you have to go back 51 innings to find the most recent long ball he’s surrendered.
After blanking the Rangers for seven innings, Sale’s ERA dropped down to 2.23, the fourth best in the American League. He’s also overtaken Max Scherzer for the most strikeouts in baseball with 188 and is on pace to strike out 324 batters, which would be the most in Red Sox history. Pedro Martinez set the mark in 1999 with 313 strikeouts en route to winning the pitching triple crown. In addition to that, Sale has the highest WAR of any American League pitcher (5.5), if you’re into that sort of thing.
Credit to Bartolo Colon; the guy can still go at 45 years old. The velocity ranges anywhere from high 80’s to low 90’s, but he can spot that thing. He had a matchup with Mitch Moreland where he spotted back-to-back fastballs on the outside corner to punch out the first-time All Star looking. Moreland never had a chance. Those puppies were painted beautifully. The right-hander scattered nine hits, but hung in there to hold the Red Sox to three earned runs over six innings. He most certainly gave his team a chance to win, but the one problem is that Sale gave the Rangers zero chances.
The Red Sox bullpen did, though — or Heath Hembree specifically. Coming on in relief of Sale, who went seven shutout innings with 12 strikeouts, here’s how Hembree’s inning went: strikeout, base hit, base hit, strikeout, double, walk, end scene. Craig Kimbrel was called upon to clean up Hembree’s mess, but walked in one of Hembree’s runs on four pitches to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Boston’s closer locked in after that, striking out Joey Gallo to end the eighth and leave ‘em loaded, followed by punching out the side in the ninth to wrap up his 28th save of the season.
It wasn’t the usual ass-beating from an offensive standpoint, but it was once again a double digit-hit game for Boston, highlighted by a two-run double off the bat of JD Martinez. His RBI total for the year is now up to 79, putting him on a pace to drive in 136 runs. To put that in perspective, Manny Ramirez drove in 136 runs or more just one time in his eight years in Boston (144, 2005), while David Ortiz did it three times from 2004 through 2006 (139, 148, 137).
After sweeping their third consecutive series to win their ninth straight game, the Red Sox now welcome the Toronto Blue Jays to Fenway Park for a four-game series. In game one, it’ll be JA Happ versus David Price. The seemingly never-ending David Price drama saga rolls on, I guess.
Covering Price in Boston has been like monitoring someone walking on a balance beam. Even when they’re doing well, you’re kind of always feeling the anxiety that they could fall off at any moment. And when they do, they have to go right back to the start to see if they can successfully make it all the way across again. Even when Price is pitching well, if he falls off that beam, he’s gotta go back to the beginning and start over.
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Price started over in a BIG way when he got shelled at Yankee Stadium, and then followed that up with a trash start against the Royals of all teams. This will be Price’s third attempt to get back on that beam and begin his walk across to the postseason start that awaits him if and when the Red Sox themselves successfully make it to the Division Series.
Happ has been mentioned quite a bit in trade rumors, and has been linked to the team that blew his doors off in his last start. The Yankees tattooed Happ for six earned runs in two and two thirds innings his last time out, and the Tigers got him for seven earned runs the start before that. His ERA has ballooned almost a full run just in his last two starts alone. However, the Red Sox did face Happ back in April, and the left-hander went seven innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts.
Final score: Red Sox 4, Rangers 2