Sale drops 1-0 heartbreaker

Sox pitcher Chris Sale following 1-0 loss to the Royals Saturday night.

When it comes to quality starts, White Sox pitchers have been among the best in the business.

Reaping victories from those impressive starts is the issue that has left the Sox shaking their heads … and in fifth place in the American League Central.

All-Star Chris Sale did his part Saturday night, allowing just one run in nine innings. But that run was enough for the Royals to post a 1-0 victory before a crowd of 26,172 at U.S. Cellular Field.

The Sox rallied in the ninth and had runners on the corners with one out. Jeff Keppinger smoked a sinking liner to right that David Lough deftly grabbed with a daring dive. Not knowing if the ball would be caught, Alex Rios did not tag up to try to score the tying run from third. Pinch-hitter Conor Gillaspie then struck out to end the game.

"To tell you the truth, I don't think there's much I could have done," Rios said. "That was a hell of a play and even if I tagged up I don't think I had a chance at home. It's a tough play for us."

Manager Robin Ventura said: "If Rios goes back (and tags), and (Lough) short-hops it, he might have a chance. You would like to see him tag, but then again the guy made a great play."

Sale turned in his 16th quality start of the season. Since 2003, the Sox have made 935 quality starts, the most in the majors. This was Sale's fourth loss this season after working eight-plus innings and allowing three earned runs or less. The last Sox pitcher to lose four games with those numbers was Mark Buehrle in 2002.

The Sox have fallen to 21 games below .500 at 40-61. The last time they were 21 games below the break-even mark was Sept. 25, 2007, when they were 68-89.

"Just have to stay on the positive," said Sale, who fell to 6-10. "You can't get down on yourself or down on anyone else. Just keep grinding it out and things will turn around."

Said Ventura: "He has a lot of very good qualities. He's very competitive. He gets angry in all the right ways. That is just part of what is going to make him better down the road. He has had that all along. That is what has gotten him to this point. He ranks up there with anybody."

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning when Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler led off with singles before Lorenzo Cain poked a one-out double down the left-field line to produce the game's only run.

Wade Davis (5-9), who had lost his four previous outings, blanked the Sox as Kansas City won its fifth in a row. Greg Holland earned his 26th save as the Sox were limited to five singles overall.

The Royals made several sparkling plays defensively, including Cain in center field.

"That's part of playing," Ventura said. "You have to be able to overcome it and we didn't."

fmitchell@tribune.com

Twitter @kicker34

Source:http://hubungansehat.blogspot.com/2013/07/sale-drops-1-0-heartbreaker.html

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