>>Sale Leads Sox Past Astros
Chris Sale stayed locked in and pitched the Chicago White Sox past the Houston Astros 3-1 at a rainy U.S. Cellular Field on Monday.
Sale (6-2) turned in another lights-out performance with eight innings of one- run ball. The flame-throwing lefty allowed just five hits, walked one and struck out 14 to become the first player franchise history to record four straight starts of 10-plus punchouts. He's also the first player since Randy Johnson in 2001 with three consecutive games of at least a dozen strikeouts.
Avisail Garcia belted a two-run homer to back Sale's effort and help snap the club's two-game slide.
The loss somewhat spoiled the major-league debut of 20-year-old shortstop Carlos Correa. The first overall pick in the 2012 draft immediately became the youngest player in baseball and recorded an RBI single in his second at-bat.
The Astros dropped their fifth straight despite another quality start from Lance McCullers (2-1), who was saddled with the loss for the first time in his young career.
Jonathan Villar nearly made a running catch at the wall in the home second, but the ball popped out of his glove. Adam LaRoche was credited with a leadoff double and later scored the game's first run on a Melky Cabrera base hit.
Sale appeared to get out of a second-and-third, no-out jam in the fourth with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout by Correa. Correa was originally called out on his grounder in the hole at short, but replay showed he beat the throw by a half-step and was awarded a memorable first hit.
The run ended a string of 22 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings for Sale, but his offense gave him the lead right back when Garcia, with a man on second, drilled an outside pitch the other way and over the right-field wall for a go- ahead homer in the bottom half.
Sale struck out the side in the eighth to offset a one-out double by George Springer, and David Robertson closed out the gem with his 11th save in the ninth.
American League Scoreboard
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Toronto 11, Miami 3
Kansas City 3, Minnesota 1
>>Rockies Avalanche of Runs Downs Cardinals
Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado homered and David Hale pitched seven quality innings in the Colorado Rockies' 11-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Monday's series opener.
Hale (2-0) allowed three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts for the Rockies, who have now won every other game in the last nine.
Ben Paulsen went 3-for-5 and scored three times in the rout, as Colorado outhit the Cardinals 16-8.
The Rockies did most of their damage against John Lackey (4-4), who was responsible for 10 runs -- eight earned -- on 12 hits in just four innings. They plated five in the first and five more in the fourth.
Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday left the game with a right quad strain as St. Louis was 5-1 in its previous six games.
National League Scoreboard
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Milwaukee 2, Pittsburgh 0
Cincinnati 6, Philadelphia 4
San Diego 5, Atlanta 3 (11 innings)
Los Angeles 9, Arizona 3
