Sale bloodied, Sox swept, life removed of purpose
By James Fegan
Screw it, dude. Let’s go bowling. By which I mean, “Let’s go drink at a bowling alley.” Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Shortstop Marcus Semien was promoted to Triple-A Charlotte today. He’s been displaying his incredible plate discipline at Double-A Birmingham, batting .290/.420/.483 with 84 walks and 66 strikeouts. While his bat wasn’t heralded much out of college, Semien has emerged as a true bright spot in an otherwi–
Well, yes, there was also a game. If you’re interested in that sort of thing.
It’s hard to cull a particularly interesting aspect of a moribund 6-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians to complete a brutal four-game sweep, which extended the White Sox losing streak to seven games–mother of GAWD–and featured none other than franchise bright spot Chris Sale wavering with his velocity, splitting the plate and hitting the showers after five innings and yet another beating at the hands of the Ohio racist logo-clad franchise
While the 10 hits Sale allowed over five innings matched a season-high, the five earned runs weren’t as bad as the last time he pitched at Progressive Field. He has lost to Cleveland in all three attempts on the year, but since he’s 6-11 now, it’s not as remarkable as it should be.
A two-out RBI single by Mark Reynolds got the Tribe on the board in the second inning and set the stage for the lesser lights of the Cleveland lineup bludgeoning the Sox to death. The next inning, Ryan Raburn took a flat, 91 mph fastball over the heart of the plate for an opposite field home run down the right field line, his first of two long balls on the day. The former Tiger also nipped a grounder off Conor Gillaspie‘s drawn in glove to start a two-run fifth that Sale was pulled at the conclusion of.
The decision to pull Sale after 79 pitches was reminiscent of his four-inning outing in Baltimore last August. He looked bad, tired and the Sox were hopelessly behind–so why bother?
The offense had their usual amount of luck against Justin Masterson, who came in with a 2.29 career ERA vs. the South Siders, which is to say that they were lucky to leave with their lives. A solo home run from Alejandro De Aza was the only impact made on the score board. Little miracles like this are how shutouts are avoided.
The Indians have won 73 games in a row now, or something. Sorry, Detroit. I can’t even come close to caring, but sorry all the same.
Team Record: 40-66
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