Sale has 15 strikeouts as White Sox clip Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) ― Chris Sale nearly made White Sox history in a dominating victory.

Sale struck out a career-high 15, Adam Dunn hit a two-run homer and Chicago extended its winning streak to six games with a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.

“A special day ... it was awesome,” said Sale, who is from nearby Lakeland. “It’s nice, especially growing up and being kind of a Tampa Bay Rays fan. My uncle brought me here to the first game. It was the day after my birthday.” 

Sale (6-2) gave up one run, three hits and walked two in 7 1/3 innings while finishing one strikeout shy of the team record. Jack Harshman struck out 16 against Boston on July 25, 1954.

“I didn’t know what the record was,” Sale said. “That’s something I’m not really worried about. I knew I had quite a few there late in the game, but it’s the same thing just like any other day. You go out there and you try not to focus on all the external stuff that might get in the way of you doing your job.”

Sale struck out his 15th batter, Jose Molina, with a runner on third and two outs in the seventh. He retired his final batter, Rich Thompson, on a grounder to lead off the eighth.

“You know what, that guy could have punched out a lot of teams 15 times,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “His stuff was that good. The entire package, what he did, was good. A lot of awareness out there.”

Lopez, Kipnis pace Tribe

CLEVELAND (AP) ― Jose Lopez had three RBIs and Jason Kipnis drove in two runs to help the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 8-5 Monday.

Josh Tomlin (2-2) gave up four runs and four hits in five innings as Cleveland broke a three-game losing streak. The right-hander had not pitched since May 7 due to right wrist tendinitis.

Kipnis had a two-run single in a five-run third inning off Nathan Adcock (0-3) as the first-place Indians maintained a half-game lead in the AL Central over the Chicago White Sox. They had lost three in a row at Chicago over the weekend.

Chris Perez got a standing ovation as he worked a perfect ninth for his 17th save. His only blown save came on opening day.

St. Louis 8, Atlanta 2

Philadelphia 8, NY Mets 4

Miami 5, Washington 3

Boston 7, Detroit 4

Pittsburgh 4, Cincinnati 1

Minnesota 5, Oakland 4

Chicago Cubs 11, San Diego 7

Colorado 9, Houston 7 Gm. 1

Colorado 7, Houston 6 Gm. 2

San Francisco 4, Arizona 2

Toronto 6, Baltimore 2

Texas 4, Seattle 2

Milwaukee 3, LA Dodgers 2

LA Angels 9, NY Yankees 8