South Side Morning 5: Why did Chris sale deviate from his plan?

1. Why did Chris Sale do what he did? Why did the man who has built his season on filling up the zone and conserving energy, suddenly find himself starting the night in fire-and-brimstone mode, burning 43 pitches in an inning, and ending his night overthrowing his way to the backstop?

Sure, he had awful command and a slip-up night where middling hitters suddenly were able to foul off an infinite number of pitches was bound to snag him at some point, but this was not just a bad night: it was a disaster start. He excoriated himself in his post-game interview and even claimed to review video of the start when he was pulled to check for pitch-tipping, which seems like a bizarre place to start unless Sale was particularly suspicious of how the Indians were able to read and foul off so many two strike putaway pitches.

There was always potential for hiccups and inconsistency when Sale would need to ramp things back up, but there was a disconnect between this outing’s seemingly unharnessed aggression and the discipline and focus that marked his earlier work.

2. Tuesday afternoon was a quietly intriguing build of tension if you’re obsessed with the back end of the White Sox roster. It started with a boil from the lower depths of the organization.