The combination of R.A. Dickey continuing to struggle and Chris Sale remaining locked in turned Tuesday night’s game with the Chicago White Sox into a one-sided, ugly affair. When the dust settled and the final out was made, the final score read 10-1.
For the first four innings, the game was close, Chicago taking a 1-0 lead on an Avasail Garcia home run. Toronto couldn’t get anything going against Sale, but Dickey held the White Sox in check until the Top of the 5th rolled around. Brett Lawrie, Garcia and Dionner Navarro all reached base, the first two coming home on Austin Jackson’s double to right. Navarro came home on a sacrifice fly to make the score 4-0.
Two innings later, a walk to Garcia was followed by a home run by Navarro and Dickey was done. Over the final three innings, the bullpen would give up three more runs, with Drew Storen giving up four hits and three runs while registering just a single out in the 8th. As John Gibbons walked to the mound to pull the first-year Blue Jays reliever and replace him with Pat Venditte, the look on his face was a perfect encapsulation of the game – complete exasperation and a readiness for this one to already be over.
While Dickey and the bullpen struggled, Sale was outstanding, scattering four hits and two walks over eight innings of work, his only mistake a solo home run by Edwin Encarnacion in the 7th. The sinewy lefty struck out six, lowering his ERA to 1.66 and picking up his fifth win of the season.
This wasn’t one of those games where the Jays left a bunch of runners on base and couldn’t collect a timely hit; this was a shutdown performance from Sale, as Toronto only managed one at-bat with a runner in scoring position.
Unlike some of the troublesome games from earlier in the season, this one doesn’t actually rate that bad. Sure, they got blown out and shut down at the dish, but it came against a hot team and the best pitcher in the American League to start the season. If you’re going to get handcuffed by someone, getting locked up by Sale isn’t the end of the world.
This is the kind of game you just leave in the past – the one you just admit was ugly and move on from, aiming for a win in the series finale before hitting the road for three games in Tampa.
Player of the Game: Kevin Pillar?
In a game like this, singling out a player that had a strong game is like clutching at straws, but after a couple games on the bench and batting at the bottom of the order, Pillar hit sixth and went 1-for-3. He also made a solid diving catch for the second out of the ninth, showing the kind of hustle that has made him a fan favourite. Down 9-1 at the time, Pillar didn’t have to rush towards right center and lay out for a sinking fly ball, but he did and that’s why he’s the Player of the Game.
On Deck: Toronto looks to halt their two-game losing streak and salvage a win in this series with Marco Estrada going up against Jose Quintana in the finale at 7pm ET/4pm PT Wednesday at the Rogers Centre.
