Chris Sale named A.L. All-Star starting pitcher for third straight year

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WASHINGTON -- The Ferrari is revved up.

For a third straight year, Chris Sale is the American League starting pitcher in the All-Star Game. On Monday, the Red Sox ace got the nod for Tuesday night’s game from manager A.J. Hinch of the Astros.

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Sale, 29, leads the AL with both a 2.17 ERA and 188 strikeouts. Luis Severino of the Yankees was a strong candidate as well, but Sale’s been otherworldly of late. The lefty has fanned at least 11 while walking one or none in each of his last five starts, the longest such streak in major league history.

He also hasn’t allowed a home run in seven starts and his last 51 innings.

Sale in June was regularly touching 100 mph, something he did when he was a rookie but rarely since then. The Sox had Sale build up his pitch count and arm strength slowly this year, but eventually, Sale ripped the governor right off. He told pitching coach Dana LeVangie he was upgrading his car to a Ferrari, and the results have been clear.

The All-Star break is coming after an unusually high number of games played for all teams because of changes to baseball’s schedule, skewing some numbers. Nonetheless, Sale’s 188 K's are tied for the 11th-most by any pitcher to prior to the All-Star break, and are the most since Randy Johnson had 202 in 2001. They're the most by an A.L. pitcher since Nolan Ryan set a league record with 234 in 1977.

When Sale was named the 2017 All-Star Game starting pitcher, he became the first to start the game in consecutive years as a member of different teams. 

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In many ways, Sox fans will be curious to see how well Sale comes out of the All-Star break more than anything. The second half has not always brought results that are quite as overwhelming. After looking like the favorite for much of the year, Sale finished second in Cy Young voting last season to Corey Kluber.

Sale threw two scoreless innings in last year’s All-Star Game start. 

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