Chris Sale delivered a dazzling performance in Thursday night’s victory over the Dodgers, scattering five hits over nine innings of shutout baseball.
The 37-year-old southpaw piled up 11 strikeouts on the night and didn’t walk a batter, throwing a remarkable 80 of his 109 pitches for strikes. The only real threat against him came as Mookie Betts doubled to lead off the fourth inning, and he never advanced past second base. Sale got 20 swings and misses in the contest — 11 of those on his slider — while posting an elite CSW of 39 percent. Now 13-9 on the season, the Cy Young hopeful will carry a stellar 2.06 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and a 177/28 K/BB ratio (144 innings) into Wednesday’s matchup against the Nationals in Washington.