Chris Sale was brilliant in Chicago's win over St. Louis in extra innings. (Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports)
ST. LOUIS — Chris Sale tied a 16-year old major league record and even picked up his first big league hit.
The Chicago White Sox managed to win the game, although Sale wasn’t around for the decision.
Catcher Tyler Flowers’ two-out solo homer in the top of the 11th inning lifted Chicago to a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night at sold-out Busch Stadium.
Sale delivered another outstanding performance. The ace left-hander worked eight innings, giving up six hits and one run while walking one and whiffing 12.
Sale’s strikeout of shortstop Jhonny Peralta for the sixth inning’s first out gave him 10 for the eighth consecutive game, tying Boston’s Pedro Martinez for the all-time mark. Martinez set the record from Aug. 19-Sept. 27, 1999.
Flowers’ 431-foot blast into the left-center-field bleachers off Miguel Socolovich (2-1) made a winner of reliever Daniel Webb (1-0), who got the last two outs of the 10th.
David Robertson pitched a scoreless 11th inning his 16th save as the White Sox (33-42) won for just the fifth time in 18 games and improved their record in extra-inning affairs to 7-2.
St. Louis starter Lance Lynn also ended up with a no-decision despite a solid outing. Lynn gave up one run on six hits and a walk in six innings while striking out six.
The Cardinals (51-25) saw their six-game winning streak end. They lost for just the eighth time in 37 home games.
Chicago plated the game’s first run in the third inning when first baseman Jose Abreu bounced an RBI single off the left front corner of second base, the ball bouncing over the head of second baseman Pete Kozma and into left-center field.
The hit scored Sale, who led off the inning with a broken-bat single to left for the first hit of his major league career. He moved to second on an infield out.
St. Louis equalized in the fourth with one big swing from left fielder Randal Grichuk. Jumping on an 0-1 offering from Sale, Grichuk pounded the ball 448 feet off the facing of the third deck in left field, his seventh homer of the year.
NOTES: St. Louis put RHP Matt Belisle (right elbow inflammation) on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 26. Belisle is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in 30 outings out of the bullpen. … To replace Belisle, the Cardinals recalled RHP Marcus Hatley from Triple-A Memphis. In order to add Hatley to the 40-man roster, they shifted RHP Jordan Walden (right biceps) from the 15-day DL to the 60-day DL. … Chicago has been outscored 62-21 in the first inning, the worst margin of any major league team.
