(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)

The Angels saw the ball off of Chris Sale as well as you can see it now. “And the White Sox have their longest winning streak of the year….four!”  The famous quote from Rookie of the YEar (which had “two” instead of “four”) sounds a little better tonight, because Chris Sale dominated the Angels to extend the Sox’s already season-high winning streak to four games with a 3-0 victory.

Sale extended his personal scoreless streak to a whopping 23 innings by giving up only three hits and three walks over seven and two-thirds innings, tallying a season-high 12 strikeouts. 

Sale outdueled C.J. Wilson of the Angels (who for some reason, owns a car dealership in the Countryside area) and got just enough offensive support from Adam Dunn (who else?) and company to bring the Sox within two games of breaking even.

Alex Rios began the scoring for the Sox with a solo homer in the first inning.  Conor Gillespie hit a clutch two-out RBI single to score Dayan Viciedo in the 7^th inning.  Dunn added an insurance run in the ninth inning with a solo shot of his own, his third homer in as many days.

Addison Reed shut the door with a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 14^th save in 15 chances.  Tonight’s shutout of the Halos brought the Sox team ERA to 3.49, good enough for second best in the American League.

On a side note, boy was it nice to hear Tom Paciorek in the booth with Hawk again.  Wimpy brought excitement and knows exactly when to talk to complement Hawk.

Up Next: Hector Santiago takes on Joe Blanton at 3:05 on Saturday on Fox.

“Can any of you hit? No? Jeeze, this is gonna be tough.” (Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports)

Almost every game this year the question for the White Sox is whether they’ll be able to score enough (read: any) runs. With their 2^nd-best pitcher on the mound in Jose Quintana up against Wade Davis, this should be a match-up that favored Chicago.

The White Sox would draw first blood in the third. Wise singled to left, de Aza walked, and Keppinger squeaked a “single” up the middle with Miguel Tejada and Alcides Escobar bumping into each other. That would load the bases for a severely slumping Alex Rios, who appears to have changed his stance to the point where he is basically standing completely straight up and down. Rios would chop the first pitch to third base, driving in a run on the force out. Adam Dunn, whose bat has to be the slowest in the majors at this point, popped a foul ball behind the plate that Sal Perez never saw, but Mike Moustakas came charging in from 3B to make the catch and end the inning.

Jose Quintana wouldn’t allow a baserunner until a walk to Billy Butler the second time through the lineup, starting the game by retiring 11 Royals in a row. Quintana would strand Butler on first as well, getting through 4 shutout innings on 56 pitches.

The White Sox would threaten in the 5^th with a leadoff single from Wise, who would advance to 2B after a throwing error on a pickoff attempt by Davis. de Aza would force Davis to throw 10 pitches, though he would eventually strike out. A chopper to third by Keppinger, a walk to Rios, and a Dunn strikeout would defuse the threat.

Kansas City would get their first hit with 1 out in the bottom of the 5^th, as Moustakas would rip a 2-0 pitch into right field for a single. Francoeur would then follow it up with a double to left, bringing up Sal Perez with runners on 2^nd and 3^rd. Quintana continued to struggle to find the zone, walking Perez on 4 pitches to load the bases. That would bring up the decrepit, ancient Miguel Tejada, who would chop a single through Alexei Ramirez in the hole tying the game at 1. Then Keppinger would kick a double play ball into the air, putting Kansas City ahead 2-1 with the bases loaded and 0 out instead of two more outs. Quintana would induce another grounder, but it would also leak through the right side of the infield to put Kansas City up 3-1. Quintana would manage to retire Butler and Hosmer without any further damage, but a 2-run deficit feels fairly insurmountable for this offense.

Lorenzo Cain would reach on a grounder to Alexei, which he would bobble and then skip late over to first base, making this a candidate for, “Worst Defensive Game I’ve Seen From Alexei.” Another weak grounder would find a hole, and Quintana would be pulled after 5+ innings. This would be the second outing in a row where the White Sox defense failed him after pitching quite well. Nate Jones would come in and shut things down, with a Francoeur liner into a double play and a grounder to get three quick outs.

Gimenez lead off the 7^th by reaching on a comical misplay by Tejada at 2^nd. DeWayne Wise bafflingly got another single, this time off the lefty Tim Collins who had replaced Wade Davis, to make him 3-3 on the day. de Aza would then loop a double to deep to right field, tying the game 3-3 with none out. Having retired no one and surrendered the lead, Collins would depart.

Aaron Crow would induce a grounder out of Keppinger, which advanced de Aza to third. On the very next pitch, Aaron Crow held onto a slider for too long and de Aza would come home on the wild pitch to put the White Sox ahead 4-3. Rios would follow it up with a solo shot to left, further padding the lead 5-3.

As a sign that all things were suddenly breaking the White Sox’ way, Adam Dunn legged out an infield single into the teeth of the shift. Konerko and Gillaspie would make outs to end the inning, but with a 4-run “explosion” in the 7^th, the White Sox were in good shape.

Unfortunately, the White Sox are good at coming up with new ways to humiliate themselves, as Wise didn’t realize a shallow pop-up to center was his ball and it dropped in for a “single.” Ventura decided that with Alex Gordon coming up, this was a job for Matt Thornton. Thornton would oblige by falling behind 3-1, but then coming back to strike Gordon out swinging. Yet another chopped grounder would find its way through the right side of the infield to put Royals on 1^st & 2^nd with 1 out. Ventura would go to the bullpen again, bringing in Lindstrom. Lindstrom would help the White Sox out of yet another jam, getting a double play grounder (that Keppinger didn’t kick into right field) to end the inning.

Crain would pitch a scoreless 8^th. Reed would start the 9^th with a 5 pitch walk to Sal Perez, however, and the pinch runner Getz would advance on a pretty awful passed ball by Gimenez. Reed would make the misplay irrelevant, by walking pinch hitter George Kottaras on another 5 pitches, with his release point looking a little late. He would recover to induce weak pop-ups from Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain.

Then Addison Reed would hang a 3-2 slider to Butler who would drive in both walks to right center, meaning Reed’s first blown save of the year and a tie game at 5-5. In fact, de Aza would have to make a diving catch on a Hosmer liner to prevent a walk-off loss.

Ventura brought Brian Omogrosso in for the 10^th, because tie-games are mop up situations and he gave up the game-winning run for the Royals. White Sox lose. Oh – also, Ventura called for an intentional walk of Chris Getz in the 10th inning. Chris Getz, as you may know, is an atrocious hitter. This team has a tiny margin for error, and Ventura frequently throws it away on highly dubious decisions like this.

Notes:

Hector Gimenez would continue to call for a letter-high fastball on every single 0-2 count from Quintana, to the point where Alex Gordon just missed a grand slam on one because it’s that predictable.

Even known baseball vagabond/scoundrel Jeff Keppinger homered off of Sale that day, before his body and soul were cleansed and purified in the Chicagoland Plumbing Council shower in the outfield concourse. Despite the conversion, revenge is at hand…or counter-revenge, since no one on the Rays can feel too great about that 15-strikeout game from last Memorial Day.

1. Alejandro De Aza, LF
2. Jeff Keppinger, 2B
3. Alex Rios, RF
4. Adam Dunn, DH
5. Paul Konerko, 1B
6. Conor Gillaspie, 3B
7. Alexei Ramirez, SS
8. Tyler Flowers, C
9. Dewayne Wise, CF

Tampa Bay (More like, Trampa Bay, hahahaha, alright settle down) starter Jeremy Hellickson is a right-hander with distinct platoon splits, so Robin Ventura is staying heavy on the left-handers, including left-handed center fielder Dewayne Wise, who is notably more left-handed than left-handed center fielder Jordan Danks and left-handed center fielder Blake Tekotte, both of whom are left-handed.

Hellickson has remarkable command but lacks a true out-pitch. While the mouths of White Sox hitters are far too parched for them to lick their chops at anyone, “throws lots of strikes but is vulnerable to dingers” is a much more favorable combination than “good stuff but bad control, gotta wait him out.” They don’t wait people out. Hellickson actually being decent mutes some of the excitement of the matchup.

1. Desmond Jennings, CF
2. Ryan Roberts, 2B
3. Ben Zobrist, SS
4. Evan Longoria, 3B
5. Sean Rodriguez, 1B
6. Shelley Duncan, DH
7. Kelly Johnson, LF
8. Jose Lobaton, C
9. Sam Fuld, RF

Other than slots 1, 3 and 4, this lineups got jokes for days and giggles for weeks. We can laugh and laugh at Sam Fuld’s attempts at Sale’s sliders right up until our throats crack with blood, or when we remember that the Rays have scored 13 more runs than the White Sox this season in one more game played.

Weather: Cold, but playable!

Where to watch: Due to this whole Chicago Bulls playoffs conflagration going about, this game is on CSN+ at 7:10 pm. Gee, I sure hope this CSN channel guide is accurate.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan