Chris Sale scheduled to start for White Sox Friday vs. Twins

Jul 21, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox starting pitcher

throws a pitch against the Kansas City Royals in the first inning at U.S Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

The must-watch TV portion of the Chicago White Sox pitching staff will be pitching on Friday night, with ace Chris Sale taking on the visiting Minnesota Twins at U.S.Cellular Field.

Sale will enter the game with a 10-1 overall record and a 1.88 ERA and oppose Logan Darnell of the Twins who is 0-1 with a 7.88 ERA. Sale’s 1.88 ERA is second best in all of baseball behind Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers (1.71).

For the White Sox left-handed ace, Sale has been mostly great this season with 10 wins in 16 starts.

In his past 10 starts (June 1-July 26) Sale is 6-1 with a 1.95 ERA in what amounts to 73.2 innings. In that span of time, Sale has walked just 11 batters, and with five of those coming on June 28 against the Toronto Blue Jays. In his past four starts, Sale has combined to walk just three batters.

Sale’s last start came on July 26 at Minnesota against the same Twins ball club. In that start Sale gained the win by pitching eight strong innings. He allowed no earned runs on five hits and two walks. In that game he struck out 12, the second time he achieved that feat in his past four starts.

Looking at his past 10 starts, Sale has had 10 or more strike outs three times.

Now as we look forward to the Friday night start against the Twins, Sale is 6-1 with a 2.08 ERA in his past 56.1 innings against the Twins, including 61 strikeouts.

One player who has has some success against Sale is Brian Dozier. Dozier is batting .400 against Sale in 10 career at-bats with two home runs and four RBIs.

Josh Willingham has faced Sale 17 times with a .176 average and two RBIs.

With the game airing on CSN at 8:10 ET, I urge all White Sox fans to tune or or attend live, because in a season that has the White Sox at 53-56 on the season, Sale is one of the few bright spots on this club, and we only get to see him pitch every five days.