Chris Sale has been the driving force of the Chicago White Sox over his past few starts and the pitcher has a chance to further that momentum has he takes the mount against a Minnesota Twins team slowly starting to figure things out as the mid-way point of the season approaches. Sale is thriving as one of the best pitchers in the league at the moment and as he has battled some trade rumors, the pitcher can make history on Wednesday.
Sale first struck out 12 batters while giving up just two runs to Tampa Bay a week ago. He then followed that up by retiring the first 17 batters and put up 14 strikeouts against the Texas Rangers. The issue was that the White Sox lost both of those games despite the excellent pitching from Sale. He now has the chance to strike out at least 12 batters in six straight games as he takes on the Twins. The only other pitchers to achieve that success are Pedrod Martinez and Randy Johnson.
The White Sox have yet to match the success of Sale as run support has been a big issue for the team especially when he is on the mound. Against Tampa Bay, the team lost 2-1 while falling 2-1 again to the Rangers. Chicago is hoping to get back on track as they prepare to face Minnesota. The team snapped a seven-game road losing streak by beating Minnesota on Tuesday thanks to Jose Abreu getting four hits and three runs. He is currently batting .393 in his last 14 games while putting up a .339 average in 15 games at Target field.
Minnesota will put Phil Hughes on the mound who is 5-6 with a 4.47 ERA on the season. He is coming off one of his better games of the year where he gave up just one solo home run and one hit over eight innings to the Chicago Cubs. He is 0-1 with a 3.46 ERA against the White Sox. The Twins are in need of plate production as well. Brian Dozier and Torii Hunter each have mild success when batting against Sale which will help Wednesday.
