Marco Gonzales can only match Chris Sale for so long as Mariners get blanked by Red Sox

BOSTON — The obvious realization came in the first few at-bats of the game: This wasn’t going to be one of those days where Chris Sale gets beat.

The Mariners’ only hope for victory would be to match Sale’s dominance and somehow pull out a victory at the end against the Red Sox bullpen.

But neither happened on Sunday in a 5-0 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Sale dominated for seven scoreless innings while Boston built a sizable lead against Mariners starter Marco Gonzales.

As Sale painted the edges of the plate with his high-90s fastballs and dropped in nasty, almost unfair breaking balls, the only questions that remained were: 1. Would the Mariners score against him? 2. How many Seattle hitters would he strike out?

The answers:

1. No.

2. Thirteen.

It was a comfortable enough margin that the Red Sox didn’t have to push Sale into the eighth. He’d thrown 93 pitches, allowed just four hits, struck out 13 batters and walked one to improve to 7-4 on the season.

Sale’s 93rd pitch of the game was a riding 100.5 mph fastball that Mike Zunino had no chance of hitting. He waved at the nasty pitch, striking out for the third time in the game.

For four innings, Gonzales was matching Sale’s dominance. A fellow lefty that doesn’t have any of the velocity or violent stuff of Sale, Gonzales was pinpoint in his command and attack against the full compliment of Boston’s lineup.

Gonzales allowed just one run over four scoreless innings, while striking out six batters.

But his outing fell apart in the fifth. He allowed a leadoff double to Xander Bogaerts, a single to Eduardo Nunez and another double to Rafael Devers, which plated the first Boston run. The Red Sox added a pair of sacrifice flies in the inning to make it 3-0.

A 1-0 deficit vs. Sale is workable. A 2-0 deficit makes you hope to get him out an inning early and then beat the bullpen. Anything more than that, a comeback becomes borderline impossible.

And the Red Sox lead continued to grow against Gonzales. Mitch Moreland smashed a two-run homer to center to push the lead to 5-0 in the sixth. Gonzales finished the frame, but his outing was done. After the first four scoreless innings, he’d allowed five in the final two. He gave up a total of seven hits with five strikeouts.