Against a White Sox lineup that is designed to get destroyed by lefties, Chris Sale did just that tonight. He threw eight innings. He allowed just seven baserunners. He struck out 10. He threw 79 of 109 pitches for strikes.
And he lost to Dylan Covey and the White Sox bullpen.
It turns out the White Sox could do what the Red Sox couldn't -- string together a sequence of at-bats that could result in one run, no matter how unimpressive it might look.
Covey ended up dodging that bullet in the first. He gave up a leadoff double and a walk, and yet no Boston baserunner reached third all night. Xander Bogaerts struck out, and Mitch Moreland bounced into a 3-6-1 double play.
Covey retired the next 12 in a row, and 17 0f the next 18 after that. He didn't just get groundouts with his sinker -- he struck out seven, including some whiffs at the top of the zone, where he doesn't normally work.
He kept the BoSox quiet long enough to give his offense a chance to strike, and it found a way to bleed Sale for a run in the seventh. Kevan Smith led off with a blooper down the right field line that took advantage of Fenway Park's unique dimensions. It would've been a single in most parks, but its sidespin allowed the ball to hit the dirt and jump the low wall in foul territory for a ground-rule double.
That gave the Sox three cracks to get the runner home, and they did it in two. Yoan Moncada made good use of his only non-strikeout by inside-outing a grounder to the right side and moving Smith to third. That brought the infield in, and while Trayce Thompson toyed with a safety squeeze, he eventually was able to float a liner over the head of Bogaerts at short for an RBI single.
Thompson's heroics didn't last long, because after Charlie Tilson turned the lineup over with a two-out single, Thompson got picked off at second by Sandy Leon to end the inning.
Rick Renteria didn't take chance with Covey, pulling him after a leadoff single to start the seventh. In came Jace Fry to start a string of relief work that would've been perfect had it not been for Jose Rondon. Fry nearly induced another double play from Moreland but had to settle for a 3-6 fielder's choice. He then got another groundout to the left side, but Rondon -- a relative stranger to third base -- didn't charge it quickly enough and couldn't glove the long hop.
After that, Fry merely stopped using the defense. He struck out Rafael Devers and Jackie Bradley Jr. to end the inning. Nate Jones retired the eighth in order, and Joakim Soria did the same in the ninth to nail down the unlikely win.
Sale beat Covey in game score, 81-75. The two extra innings and three extra strikeouts put him over the top. Fortunately, it's not the size of the game in the score, but the size of the score in the game.
Bullet points:
*Rondon reached with the best kind of bunt single -- one that hugged the line all the way to third base.
*The only blemish in Covey's stretch of dominance was brought to you by Fenway Park. Gameday describes it as "double on a pop up to shortstop Tim Anderson." Tilson got caught too close to the Green Monster and Anderson ended up fielding the carom.
*Daniel Palka was not tested in right.
*Saturday's meetup after-party will be brought to you by Covey.
Record: 21-40 | Box score
