The White Sox came in to Sunday looking to end their nine-game home stand on a positive note, winning their second series of the three on the home stand after the Royals took the series earlier this week. A rubber match victory would send the team into Toronto with a bit of momentum to start their seven-game road trip, which could be key because they’re not just headed anywhere, but to dreaded Toronto and Kasas City.
Luckily for the Sox, the offense came alive in the later innings and Chris Sale was Chris Sale. Here are my main takeaways …

Sale breezes along

As recently discussed on GSB! (linked above), Chris Sale has been one of the best pitchers in the American League in 2012. He was every bit of that on Sunday afternoon, striking out 11 and only surrendering two solo home runs. The Sox’ ace had control for almost all of the 6.2 innings he pitched.

His velocity was up in the low-to-mid 90’s which is right where it should be & his slider was as sharp and accurate as can be. That’s a deadly combination from Sale, a guy who can dominate even when he doesn’t have his good stuff. Today we didn’t have to worry about him having to grind and rely on his change-up like he has in some recent outings, as the “hard stuff” was on full display in the red throwbacks.
He’s proven time and time again that he’s the team’s stopper, coming up big what seems like every time he takes the mound. It doesn’t matter how he does it; he always finds a way to get outs. Today “the way” just happened to be getting 11 of 20 outs via the strikeout. Every time another Sale start passes with no serious injury concerns, that worry grows lighter on us Sox fans. So again, it was a very encouraging start as far as the outlook on the rest of Sale’s season goes.

Clutch hits

Heading into the 6th inning, the game was tied and time was wearing thin to get Chris Sale back into position to get his 14th win of the season. With one out in the Sox’ half of the inning, the flood gates opened. An Alex Rios single was followed by A.J. Pierzynski’s 23rd home run of the season, extending his career high and putting the Sox back up by the score 3-1. Several batters later, Bartolo Colon intentionally walked Alejandro De Aza to get to Gordon Beckham, who promptly rolled a single to left field to extend the lead to 5-1.
In that inning were Ray Olmedo and Dewayne Wise’s first hits for the White Sox in 2012, which was very nice to see from the newest members of the “bench mob.”
It was great to not only see the Sox offense be timely, but extremely opportunistic, as well. It’s those types of performances you need in big rubber matches/games like this one. When your hitters come through at big times, you win a lot more ball games then not; plain and simple.

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Immediately after the game, backup OF Jordan Danks was sent down to AAA Charlotte. It’s a move that caught many Sox fans like myself off guard. Nonetheless, it’s pretty understandable, as Dewayne Wise is competent with the bat and in the field but mostly because an extra arm in the bullpen would definitely be helpful as the Sox take on this stretch of games they have ahead of them with nearly no off days. Stay tuned on GrabSomeBench.com and follow @Grab_Some_Bench on Twitter to see who the guy called up is. My guess is Duente Heath or Donnie Veal.

Tomorrow night it’s Jake Peavy (9-8, 3.08) against Carlos Villanueva (6-2, 3.30) in what should be another good pitching matchup north of the border at the Rogers Centre.