Chris Sale feels right at home in Red Sox’ win over White Sox

For as long as he pitches in the majors, Chris Sale will feel different when he takes the mound in Chicago.

“It’s never not going to be weird,” Sale said with a slight grin as he stood near his locker in the visitors’ locker room. “It’s never not going to be something. Obviously, I pitched here it seems like a million times.

“I like this place. I’ve always liked pitching on this mound. Being here, it’s special to me.”

The lanky left-hander faced his former team for the third time since the White Sox shipped him to Boston after the 2016 season. He worked quickly on a cold, damp night, sending batter after batter on a slow trip back to the dugout.

The White Sox trudged to a 6-1 loss and gave Sale his first victory of the season in the process.

This time, there was no tribute video or standing ovation as there was the first time Sale returned to the South Side. But he did bring his herky-jerky delivery and a mix of fastballs, sliders and changeups that kept hitters off balance.

It was the finest start of the season for Sale, who struck out 10 in six scoreless innings. He scattered three hits and walked one while throwing 70 of 104 pitches for strikes.

Sale arrived to the park with an 0-5 record and a 6.30 ERA in his first six starts.

“Chris Sale is Chris Sale,” Rick Renteria said, dismissing the early-season struggles. “He’s a pretty dominant guy.”

Sale proved Renteria right by outdueling Reynaldo Lopez, who took a step back in his first outing since striking out a career-high 14 Sunday against the Tigers. Lopez gave up six runs in five-plus innings.

The performance spoiled a string of three straight quality starts for Lopez.

The 25-year-old looked sharp to open the game. He got leadoff hitter Andrew Benintendi to fly out to left field and he fanned Mookie Betts on three pitches, finishing him off with a 96 mph fastball over the outside corner.

Then things went sideways.

Lopez surrendered back-to-back hits before Rafael Devers clobbered a 436-foot, three-run home run to straightaway center field. It was the eighth home run Lopez has given up this season but the first in his past three starts.

In the sixth, Lopez gave up another mammoth blast, a 459-foot home run by Michael Chavis down the left-field line. That put Boston up 5-0, and the Red Sox added another run on a bases-loaded walk by White Sox reliever Jose Ruiz.

The White Sox prevented the shutout in the eighth when James McCann singled to drive in Adam Engel.

Rain-soaked fans perked up when infielder Jose Rondon took the mound in the ninth. He lobbed several throws so slowly they did not register on the radar gun, but he pitched around a pair of singles to finish with a scoreless inning.

“It felt good,” Rondon said. “It was fun. Definitely something I’d be willing to do again.”

Renteria said he wanted to save as many bullpen arms as possible. He said he would have not put a position player on the mound if the deficit were four runs or fewer.

“If it was within a grand slam, that’s my rule,” Renteria said. “That’s what I was saying, if we would’ve scored one more run, we probably would’ve pushed (Carson) Fulmer to give us an inning. But since we didn’t, it was (Rondon’s) job to do that. He threw on the side today, we actually had him throw a bit on the side to prepare him for this possibility.”