Tag Sale as dominant
Toys with Jays in latest masterpiece
TORONTO — This is what the Red Sox have been missing since they traded Jon Lester.
It’s unlike anything their TV audience has seen since Pedro Martinez.
In just four starts, Chris Sale has become the team’s super glue, capable of keeping afloat a rotation that has four other pitchers who have yet to string together two consecutive quality starts. Without Sale, the rotation would have a 6.11 ERA.
With him, the Red Sox might win another Cy Young Award.
Yesterday, Sale was the best he’s been since arriving in Boston, throwing eight scoreless innings, allowing nothing but four singles and a walk, striking out 13 and getting pulled after just 102 pitches. The Sox dramatically captured a 4-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in 10 innings thanks to Mookie Betts’ two-out, bases-clearing double.
The game was scoreless until the top of the ninth inning, when Xander Bogaerts poked a two-out, RBI double down the right-field line to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.
Through four starts, they’ve averaged just 1.5 runs of support with Sale on the mound. And yet they’ve won three of those games.
A great starting pitcher can cover up any team’s flaws.
The beginning of his career with the Red Sox has been beyond impressive: 292⁄ innings, 0.91 ERA and 42 3 strikeouts.
Rick Porcello should be nervous that Sale is coming for his Cy Young trophy after finishing in the top-six of the American League voting in each of the last five years. He finished fifth behind Porcello last year.
“No, not worried at all,” Porcello said, laughing. “I want to win a World Series. I don’t really care about that. He’s been awesome. Absolutely lights out. Everything that we’ve seen playing against him. A lot more fun being on his side, that’s for sure.”
To win the Cy Young, Sale eventually will have to get a few wins.
Last season, Porcello proved that wins still matter as most of his numbers matched Justin Verlander, except Porcello’s run support of 6.6 per game led to a 22-4 record that clearly played well in the eyes of the voters.
Marco Estrada hung with Sale for six innings yesterday, keeping the Red Sox scoreless on his watch.
Sale (1-1) was in line for the win entering the ninth, but manager John Farrell pulled him in favor of closer Craig Kimbrel, who allowed a home run to Kendrys Morales that tied the game and sent it into extras.
Why has the offense disappeared when Sale pitches?
“It’s just coincidence,” said Dustin Pedroia. “It’ll even out. It’s a long year. Short sample size. What’s he had? Four starts. He has 30 more. We’ll score for him.”
Sale seemed uninterested in the discussion.
“I’ve said it for years, there are two stats that matter: That’s wins and losses,” Sale said. “And it’s not mine. I’m trying to win games, that’s it.”
Sale’s mentality, even when he was on a struggling Chicago White Sox team for years, is one thing the Red Sox admired about him before completing the trade.
“I think that’s the way he pitches, he’s such an aggressive guy,” Kimbrel said. “From an outsider, all those years watching him pitch, I don’t think he’s really paying attention to the score as much as he’s making pitches and getting guys out. We’ve seen a great job of that so far.”
Sale, one of the quickest pitchers in the league, made speedy work of the Blue Jays on his way to becoming the first pitcher to begin a season with four straight starts of at least seven innings and at least seven strikeouts without allowing more than two runs since Pedro Martinez in 1998.
And he’s the first Red Sox pitcher to strike out at least 12 in consecutive games since Pedro in 2001. Roger Clemens and Oil Can Boyd are the only other Red Sox pitchers to ever strike out at least 12 in back-to-back outings.
Sale, David Price, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer are the only pitchers in the last two years to go at least three straight games with at least 10 strikeouts.
The tall lefty has made quite the first impression.
“That probably means more to people outside of here,” Sale said. “It doesn’t matter who I’m playing against or with or whatever. You want to be good. You want to go out there and do your job. You want to pull your weight. That’s all I’m trying to do. I’m trying to go out there and keep this team in games to win.”
He doesn’t care what color his Sox are.
White or Red, this is the same dominant pitcher.
“He does all the things you think about when you think about the basics in pitching,” Porcello said. “He does all of those so well. He gets ahead of guys. He commands his fastball and breaking ball. It’s been unbelievable watching him.”