Chris Sale took the mound on June 1 and was roughed up by the Houston Astros, allowing four runs over six innings and taking the loss.
Since then, however, the Boston Red Sox ace has been downright unhittable.
Sale pushed the Red Sox winning streak to nine games Wednesday night with another terrific outing. The southpaw pitched seven scoreless innings while striking out 12 Texas Rangers.
Now, Sale enters the All-Star break in the midst of one of the most dominant stretches of his career.
Consider this insane run as pointed out by the team’s official stats Twitter account.
In his last 7 starts, Chris Sale has a 0.94 ERA, 78 K, and 10 BB.
Sale has recorded 11+ strikeouts and 1 or 0 BB in 5 consecutive starts, extending the longest such streak in MLB history.
He has allowed 0 HR in his last 51.0 IP.
— J.P. Long (@SoxNotes) July 12, 2018
That is absurd.
Since that Houston start, Sale has been able to lower his season ERA by more than three-quarters of a run (down to 2.23) while improving his record to 10-4 and making quite the case to start the All-Star Game for a third straight season next week in Washington.
Sale’s last four starts have been especially dominant. He’s won each of his last four decisions, allowing one single run on 16 hits in 27 innings. In those 27 innings, he has 48 strikeouts and just four walks. The two most dominant starts of that stretch came against the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees — two teams that are currently a combined 52 games over .500.
He’s good.
