Following a not-so-like Chris Sale outing on Wednesday, the Chicago White Sox left-handed pitcher dropped his appeal and began serving his five-game suspension.
With the way the suspension and this past start worked out, the ace of the White Sox will not miss a start and will be pitching on six days’ rest when he faces the Brewers next week in Milwaukee.
That, my friends, is how you work the system.
Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote this about Sale and the suspension:
"“The only penalty in reality is an extra day between starts. The Sox have been careful with Sale’s workload and have given him extra rest in the past, so, all things considered, it’s probably not the worst thing as they see it.”"
Though after two sluggish starts by one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, maybe Sale needs to clear his head or something because he’s been just a tad off with his pitching the past two starts.
Thus far this season, Sale hasn’t been the quality of pitcher he was last year, plus remember he started the year on the disabled list and didn’t pitch in an “official” spring training game due to the foot injury.
In his past two starts (vs. Detroit and at Minnesota), Sale has given up 13 earned runs on 16 hits in just 8.1 innings. In a no decision on Wednesday, the ace pitched 5.1 innings, allowing five earned runs on seven hits and five walks.
On April 30 against the Twins, Sale went just three innings in the start, where he gave up eight earned runs on nine hits and two walks.
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In three of his five starts this season, Sale has given up three home runs, though his record is 2-1 with two no-decisions.
Yes, this hasn’t been the best start to the season for Sale, but maybe he’ll start getting things turned around with five starts under his belt. For the White Sox to have any thoughts of the postseason, Sale will have to come around, along with fellow suspended teammate Jeff Samardzija, on a consistent basis.
No matter what the rest of the team does, if the two best pitchers in the starting rotation continue to have a roller coaster ride each start, the Good Guys will be hard-pressed to have continued success this season.
Next: It is time for Carlos Rodon