Sox Squander Stellar Start from Sale in Series Finale Loss to Tigers

The Sox had a shot at splitting the series with the Tigers in the series finale Monday afternoon.   The Sox had ace Chris Sale on the mound vs. Justin Verlander for the Tigers.  The Sox went out to an early 1-0 lead, but then the Tigers rallied back to tie and then take the lead.   Sale pitched a great game, but when the offense can only score him one run, he is probably gonna end up with a loss.

The Sox took an early lead when they scored a single run off of Verlander in the 2nd inning.   The Sox had the bases loaded in the 2nd with no outs and Brock Holt at the plate.  Holt ground into a double play, but Moreland was able to score from 3rd.  The Sox were only able to get one run in the inning and that would end up biting them later in the game.  Sox 1-0.   Sale was dealing on his side and didn’t end up giving up a run until the 6th inning.   The Tigers ended up tying up the game when Ian Kinsler hit a solo home run off Sale in the bottom of the 6th.  Sox 1-1.

Sale kept trucking along and was having a really efficient outing.   His pitch count was low enough that he went back out for the 8th inning.   Sale got two quick outs in the inning, but then gave up a double and a walk to have the winning run in scoring position.  Sale gave the Tigers the lead when he gave up an RBI single to Castellanos to score Romine.  Sox 1-2.  Sale was done for the afternoon and Heath Hembree was in to finish off the inning.   Hembree got the final out of the 8th, but now Sale was in line for the loss.  Sale pitched a stellar game, but he got little to no run support.  Sale’s pitching line for the night was 108 pitches, 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB and 10 Ks.

The Sox offense weren’t able to get anything going against Tigers closer Francisco Rodriguez to drop the final game of the series.  This is a game the Sox could have and probably should have won, but it’ll go down in the scorebook as a L.

Red Sox 1  Tigers 2  BOXSCORE

WP: J. Wilson (1-0)  LP: Sale (0-1)  SV: Rodriguez (2)

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