SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners knew what awaited them Wednesday afternoon in their series finale against Boston at Safeco Field. Chris Sale. It’s why their comeback victory early Wednesday morning carried extra weight.
Sale is the American League’s best pitcher.
That’s indisputable, isn’t it?
Houston’s Dallas Keuchel or even the Mariners’ James Paxton might be able to build a case if they each hadn’t spent extended time on the disabled list.
But Sale leads the league in wins, innings, earned-run average, strikeouts and opponent batting average among other things. It’s why he started for the AL in the All-Star Game.
And he overmatched the Mariners over seven innings in a 4-0 victory before Blaine Boyer and Craig Kimbrel closed it out. Kimbrel got his 25th save in 28 chances.
“With Sale, it’s deception; it’s angle,” said left fielder Ben Gamel, who had one of the three hits that Sale permitted. “He does a lot of things well. He can be erratic at times, but he’s not walking people. It’s a grind.”
But …
The Mariners were, to some extent, playing with house money after winning the first two games in the series, including a 13-inning comeback thriller that began Tuesday night and stretched into Wednesday morning.
“After a long, crazy game last night,” manager Scott Servais said, “we’re matched up against Sale today. You try to keep it as tight as we can and then get on them late.
“There’s a reason he’s been the most dominant starter in the American League this year, and we saw it today.”
Sale struck out 11 while improving to 13-4 and lowering his ERA to 2.37. He hasn’t allowed a run in his last 212⁄3 innings.
The Mariners often muttered to umpire Paul Nauert about his strike zone, but the Pitch f/x computer generally confirmed Sale truly was painting the strike zone’s borders with remarkable regularity.
Which pretty much made him unhittable.
“He’s had a start like today a number of times this year,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “We’re watching one of the better years ever pitched in the American League.”
Boston backed Sale with four runs against Mariners rookie Andrew Moore (1-3) in 6 2/3 innings.
Moore gave up two more homers, which makes an alarming 11 in 36 2/3 innings, but still pitched deep enough into the game to ease the strain on a bullpen stretched thin by that 13-inning victory.
“The home run ball continues to get him a little bit,” Servais said. “He’s learning. I certainly like his competitiveness. He just didn’t have that pitch to finish them today, and the home run ball got him.”
The loss dropped the Mariners to 51-52. They have an open date Thursday before concluding a 10-game homestand with three weekend games against the New York Mets.
Moore made it through the first inning with no problems but started the second with a walk to Hanley Ramirez, who went to third on Jackie Bradley Jr.’s double to right.
Ramirez scored on Mitch Moreland’s sacrifice fly to left.
Rafael Devers boosted the lead to 2-0 when he opened the third inning with a 427-foot homer to center. It was also Devers’ first big-league hit.
“I just have to stay in good counts,” Moore said. “For the most part, I did a good job today. But the (pitches) to Devers and Bradley Jr., I just got into bad counts. They kind of know what’s coming at that point.”
The Mariners got their first hit on Jean Segura’s one-out double in the third inning, but Sale then struck out Gamel and Nelson Cruz.
Moore gave up another homer, a two-run drive by Sandy Leon with two outs in the fourth inning that extended Boston’s lead to 4-0. With Sale in top form, a four-run lead looked like 40.
“The goal coming in here was to win the series,” Servais said. “We did accomplish that, which is great. Thats’s a first-place club over there. We’re trying to move up in the standings, so it was important to have a good series.
“I thought we did play well. We just got shut down today.”
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