White Sox: Sale on Sunday's performance: ‘It was cool'

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — His latest performance was spectacular enough for Chris Sale to temporarily break character — at least a little.

Never one to reflect on his accomplishments during the season, the four-time All-Star said Monday that he heard from a number of well-wishers after matched a career high with 15 strikeouts on Sunday in a 3-1 White Sox win over the Cubs. Sale — who didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning — was good enough for Robin Ventura to cite it as one of the left-hander’s best starts ever. He induced a number of ugly swings and all but two of his strikeouts came via whiffs.

“It was cool,” Sale said. “I talked to my dad about it and stuff like that. Had a few friends text me. I’m a firm believer at looking back at the end of the season and not putting too much emphasis on it right now. Just one of those things you talk about after the season.”

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“You don’t want to spend too much time on it. They have a good swinging lineup and any false move, you can pay big for it. At the time, it is what it is. But you don’t want to put too much emphasis on that.”

Sale has never been one to talk about himself too much. He prefers to let his pitching do the talking. Ventura believes Sale, who leads the major leagues with 208 strikeouts, has done just that.

“Everybody’s watching him,” Ventura said. “Other teams are looking at our team when we come to town, they’re trying to see if he’s lining up with them. I know we used to do it with really good pitchers, used to sit there and you would know who you were going to face.”

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