With his return coming in the midst of the Crosstown Cup finale, teammates were uncertain what kind of atmosphere Sale would face at Wrigley.
Advertisement
Sale (14-4) was greeted with smiles and hugs from his teammates following a five-day ban for tearing up 1976-style uniforms he didn’t want to wear before his previous scheduled start. He gave up three runs on two hits, struck out three and walked four in 6 2/3 innings.Hammel allowed one run on five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.The Cubs were hitless until the sixth, when Kris Bryant tied the game at 1-1 with his 26th home run of the season. The four-out save was also the first save in Chapman’s Cubs career.
“I think everyone is making a little bigger deal of this than it really is”, Sale said.
Tommy Stokke of Today’s Knuckleball first reported the details of the “clubhouse incident”, which saw Sale cut up all of the team’s throwback jerseys because he didn’t want to pitch in them.
Ben Zobrist went 2-for-4 and singled home Dexter Fowler with the go-ahead run in the third inning. Sale said they were uncomfortable and became enraged when the team wouldn’t switch them out, feeling the team was putting marketing over winning.
“We beat a good pitcher”, Fowler said of Sale. “I hope it is, too”.
In the hunt for a wild-card spot, the Cardinals send Michael Wacha (5-7, 4.37 ERA) to the mound against Jose Fernandez (12-4, 2.54 ERA), who is looking to move to 27-1 in his career at Marlins Park.
Luke Maile had an RBI double in a three-run fourth inning to help Tampa Bay wrap up a nine-game West Coast road swing by ending a four-game skid. Pitchers like Sale, however, are tough to find, and he could be under team control through 2019 if the White Sox pick up his “18 and ’19 club options”.
CARDINALS 5, METS 4: Yadier Molina and pinch-hitter Kolten Wong each had an RBI double in the ninth inning, and St. Louis rallied past NY to end Jeurys Familia’s saves streak at 52 games.
Astros 4, Yankees 1 • Lance McCullers struck out 10 in six solid innings and Colby Rasmus broke out of a 0-for-29 slump with a two-run homer for host Houston.
Perez, who started at shortstop for benched Jonathan Villar, crushed Robbie Ray’s first pitch 458 feet off the facing of the scoreboard in deep center for the two-run homer in the third.
TWINS 6, ORIOLES 2 – Rookie Max Kepler continued his midseason surge with a game-tying home run among two hits and two RBIs as the Minnesota Twins rallied to beat the Baltimore Orioles.
The NL West-leading San Francisco Giants got just four hits and went down 2-1 to the Cincinnati Reds for their ninth time in 11 games since the All-Star break.
Davies got off to a rocky start, allowing a pair of first-inning runs on ground-rule doubles by Phil Gosselin and Yasmany Tomas.
Diaz and Matt Holliday homered in the third inning against Fernandez (12-5), who had never previously given up more than one homer in a home game.
Bumgarner (10-6) allowed one earned run and five hits in eight innings, striking out nine.
Advertisement
DeGrom allowed only one runner to reach second base over seven innings of scoreless ball for the Mets.
