TORONTO — Remember that scene when Houston Astros closer Ken Giles punched himself in the face after giving up the lead a couple of weeks back? Well, Chris Sale probably wanted to do the same to himself after allowing a game-tying homer to the Blue Jays’ Luke Maile in the seventh inning, but composure is what makes Sale great.
He had been so dominating after his first two innings when he allowed solo runs and trailed, 2-1. In between we saw something out of the Randy Johnson playbook — 13 of his 15 strikeouts and six in a row at one point. The Jays couldn’t touch him, until Maile got him on one lousy mistake.
Much to my surprise, Sale was allowed to pitch the eighth and the ninth innings in a dominating effort that should have resulted in a win. But that one stinking mistake to a catcher prevented him from a regulation win that would have been his fourth of the season. It also catapulted the game into much unwanted extra innings and more exposure for the Sox bullpen, which had been run over by the Yankees for three days.
That’s the one thing we can blame Sale for — allowing the bullpen to decide the game. And that same Maile guy took Brian Johnson deep to win it, 5-3, on a two-run homer in the 12th.
“Obviously not where I wanted it,’’ Sale said of Maile’s tying homer. “You have to tip your cap, he had a hell of a night. Game-tying homer in the seventh and then the walkoff. When it’s your night, it’s your night.’’
There was a decent crowd of 28,695 at Rogers Centre on a night where Torontonians were most interested in the Maple Leafs naming a new GM (Kyle Dubas) and the Raptors firing their head coach (Dwane Casey). But leaving the playoff atmosphere of Yankee Stadium to this, Sale was making his own electricity.
“Just fastball command,’’ Sale said about his success after the first two innings. “The first two innings I left some fastballs over. Once we started mixing in some offspeed pitches and starting to locate fastballs better, we stated getting better results.’’
He struck out six Jays in a row in the fourth and fifth innings; through five innings, he had 10 strikeouts. He actually looked hittable after two innings, but then he shifted to another gear.
His own throwing error seemed to get the urgency back up. What should have been the third out of the second inning after he’d already allowed a run, gave the Jays another at-bat by none other than Josh Donaldson. Sale struck him out. Sale then had a 1-2-3 third. The fourth and fifth innings were power-plus with 97 mile-per-hour heat.
The Jays produced the two quick runs off Sale. But they simply don’t have the firepower of the Yankees. So once Sale got up on them on a bizarre play where the Sox scored the go-ahead run on Sandy Leon’s strikeout and subsequent throwing error by catcher Maile to score Brock Holt from first base, Sale just found his inner Randy Johnson and dominated the Jays’ lineup.
Even with the 10 K’s through five, Sale was at 71 pitches, not bad considering the number of strikeouts. The Red Sox weren’t likely to have their full arsenal available in the bullpen after heavy usage in the New York series, none of which was very good anyway.
Sale has been preserved for the most part this season. Only three times in his first eight starts did he surpass 100 pitches. His high previous to Friday night was 109 pitches in a 3-0 loss to Oakland on April 21 when he lost to Sean Manaea, who pitched a no-hitter.
The strikeout streak ended in the sixth when Sale got leadoff hitter Yangervis Solarte to pop out to Mitch Moreland in short right field, then he struck out Justin Smoak on a 3-and-2 fastball for his 11th strikeout. He got the third out on Kevin Pillar’s popup to Holt at second base.
At this point the Jays looked like a team that wasn’t going to get any solid contact against Sale. All the Red Sox needed to do at this point was score a couple of insurance runs to ease the burden a bit. They had already banished starter Aaron Sanchez, a tough cookie, because they managed to get his pitch count up to 96 through five innings. That brought in the very unpredictable Jays bullpen, which was missing closer Roberto Osuna, who was out after being charged with assault on a woman.
By the seventh, Sale was economizing at the right time, but that darned home run happened. He came out for the eighth and rookie Teoscar Hernandez did a rookie thing and swung at the first pitch and grounded out. He struck out Donaldson for No. 13 and got Solarte to chase for No. 14.
That was Pitch No. 104. If you were guessing that was it for the night as I was, we were all wrong. The manager and pitching coach made the right decision — keep the bullpen out of it as long as possible.
“No, I don’t ever look to come out. I went to sit down to my seat. If Alex [Cora] is at the top step I know it’s over, but he just kept walking so I knew I was good. I felt good. I think that’s what we’ve built for. When you do a lot of it, it wears you down a little, but when you’ve been building up and you’re prepared for that it makes it easier to do it,’’ Sale said.
Cora denied that was the reason he allowed Sale to stay in. He said Sale didn’t throw a lot of stressful innings. He was throwing free and easy with a dynamite slider.
It’s too bad he didn’t get the win. But allowing three runs, 15 strikeouts, no walks over nine innings should be good enough. Shouldn’t it?
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.
