White Sox ace Sale to start Thursday at Cubs

Adam Eaton hit a walk-off single to lift the Chicago White Sox to a 4-3 win over the Detroit Tigers in the conclusion of a suspended game Sunday afternoon.Eaton’s single to left field finished a game that started Saturday evening before it was suspended because of rain.

Before Saturday’s game, Sale destroyed some of the 1976 throwback uniforms players were scheduled to wear in conjunction with a promotional giveaway at the park.

Those pleas fell on deaf ears, and when the ’76 uniforms were laid out on the day of Sale’s start, he took the issue to Cooper and White Sox manager Robin Ventura.

The team announced the punishment on Sunday after Sale was scratched from his scheduled start and sent home the previous night. It will cost the favorite for the AL Cy Young $250,000 of his $9.15 million salary this season.

Sale, 27, is 14-3 with a 3.18 ERA and 1.00 WHIP, with 129 strikeouts in 133 innings.

Sale’s relationship with the front office may come into play again before the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline if the team deals him with an eye toward the future. The situation escalated to the point that Sale cut up all of the jerseys with a knife so nobody on the team could wear them. In fact, the majority of the statements from Sale’s teammates and coaches included in reports seem to shy away from saying anything overtly negative about Sale’s outburst, perhaps because he is a very strong team presence the White Sox can not afford to alienate before the playoff stretch.

Sale and the White Sox were fitted for the throwback uniforms in Spring Training, and he informed management then that he didn’t want to pitch on a throwback night, since he didn’t want to play in an untucked jersey.

“We’ll deal with that when he gets here”, Ventura said.

But, with rumors running rampant that teams are taking their shots at Sale in negotiations, Hahn stressed the suspension will not affect their plans going forward. Chris Sale had other ideas. “When I can’t or don’t do that, yeah, I have disappointment in myself for not being there for my guys”.

– People said amusing things on Twitter after details of the incident spilled out, as they are wont to do with such outrageous, weird stories. “None of that stuff is impacted at all by these events”. Sale spoke to Scott Merkin of MLB.com, and made it clear that he wants to remain with the White Sox.

Sale didn’t sound like someone who wanted to be shipped out of the Windy City, either: “I want to win a championship in Chicago”. We’ve seen that at times spill between the white lines.

CUBS 6, BREWERS 5 (at Milwaukee) – Anthony Rizzo hit a three-run double in the seventh inning and Joe Nathan got the win in his first game in the majors since April 2015. Teams interested in acquiring Sale may be less inclined to do so after getting the impression that he might be slightly unhinged.

In a game that got weird before the players even took the field, the Detroit Tigers bullpen finally cracked, and the Tigers went down to defeat on a walkoff RBI single by Adam Eaton.

“The actions and behavior of the last 24 hours does not change in any respect our belief that Chris Sale can help this club win a championship, win multiple championships”, Hahn said.