By Bruce Levine–

CHICAGO (CBS) — It just might be that kind of year for White Sox ace Chris Sale, where 2016 is a coming-out party in which the baseball gods shine on him from beginning to end.

On Wednesday afternoon, the 27-year-old Sale won his fourth game of the young season, becoming the first pitcher to reach that mark in the majors this season. Sale allowed one unearned run and just two hits in seven innings as the White Sox beat the Angels, 2-1, at U.S. Cellular Field. At 10-5, the White Sox are off to their best start since Sale reached the majors in 2010, and that’s music to his ears.

It might mark the start of a magical year as well for Sale, who boasts a 1.80 ERA and 0.67 WHIP.

What was significant in his start Wednesday was the journey to victory. Sale didn’t walk a batter while striking out just three hitters. it was reflective of a mindset that’s changed over time, with an emphasis on getting outs with the sinker rather than going into full-strikeout mode.

“Coop and I talked a lot about game plan and mind set,” Sale said about his offseason conversations with pitching coach Don Cooper. “We talked about going about attacking hitters. We are just going to try to keep doing what we have been doing.”

The new approach that was conceptualized by Cooper was to attack early in the count and get ground ball outs. Sale induced 10 groundouts Wednesday.

“This is the best start we have had since I have been here,” Sale said. “It’s nice to come in here and listen to music, we got games going on and just having fun. That is what this is all about, having and enjoying it.”

This is the second time Sale has started a season with a 4-0 record, as he was 5-0 early in 2014. However, this is the first time Sale has won his first four outings to start a season.

“Part of the approach for other teams is they are going to swing at pitches earlier,” manager Robin Ventura said of the sinker-slider attack approach for Sale now. “They are going to attack earlier, because he has a pretty good chance of striking you out if you wait and get deep into a count.”

The small-ball attack that Ventura turned to gave the White Sox an all-important second run in the fifth inning. Ventura had Austin Jackson sac bunt Alex Avila to third base, and Avila scored as Angels right-hander Garrett Richards sailed the throw down the first-base line.

“We let him have the first one,” Ventura said about not putting the bunt on until the second pitch of Jackson’s at-bat. “We just wanted to see if we could get him over. We were then confident with him to get it down. It was a very good bunt.”

Avila contrasted the Sale approach to getting hitters out now compared to his old strikeout-first attack on hitters.

“He pitches with a lot of emotion,” Avila said. “One thing we have talked about all spring is being able to harness that. When we came in here when I was with Detroit, you new he would amp it up late in games in tough situations. Sometimes you would see the velocity go up, and you would get some wild pitches. Being able to know when to step back with that type of emotion and ability, throwing 15 or 16 pitches to get a strikeout is what we are correlating. We have talked about efficient ways to harness all of that. Knowing when to use that (emotion), knowing when to back off. We want him to play that off.”

Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.