Sale leaves ’em speechless
NEW YORK — Given all the action and drama that took place
after Chris Sale left last night’s game, the performance of the Red Sox ace easily could be overlooked. That would be a shame. Sale was at nearly his best against the Yankees in a 3-2 Sox victory even though he received no decision. He struck out a dozen, and he pitched out of all but one of the so-called jams he faced.
A two-out RBI triple by No.9 hitter Austin Romine spoiled Sale’s goose egg, but his numbers were just fine: only four hits allowed, with two walks and the one run in seven innings.
“I felt really good, I felt this was probably some of the best command and stuff I’ve had at the same time,” Sale said. “Like I always say and like I’ve always done all year, just relying on Sandy (Leon, his catcher) back there to guide me through that. Other than just one stupid bad pitch, we were pretty solid tonight.”
Sale may or may not review what went wrong with the pitch to Romine, but he had proper perspective on it.
“I haven’t looked at it — I think I probably hung it a little more than I would have liked to, but that’s what happens here, you make a bad pitch, he’s going to hit it a long way,” Sale said of the pitch that almost cleared the right field fence but instead appeared to bounce off the glove of right fielder Mookie Betts. “That’s as close as you can get to not hitting a homer in this stadium as it gets. I would have liked to be better there but in the end it all worked out.”
Similar to former Red Sox manager Jimy Williams in 1999 and 2000 after one more dominating Pedro Martinez start, current Red Sox manager John Farrell reached to find new ways to gush over Sale.
“He was outstanding once again,” Farrell said. “I thought he used a pretty high number of secondary pitches, he was able to go to his fastball as he does so routinely. He was strong. Big strikeout night once again. Kind of a vintage Chris Sale game that he’s given us so many times this year.”
Sale recorded at least 10 strikeouts for the 16th time this season, trailing only Martinez’ 19 in 1999.
After 13 career starts against the Yankees, Sale is now 4-2 with a 1.18 ERA. This season, he is 0-1 against them in three starts with a 1.19 ERA. He has received two runs in support in those three starts.
More important for Sale was the series win.
“It’s big,” he said. “Anytime you can come up here and win a series in this division this late in the year, it’s big. Like I said before, we know where we’re at, we know what we need to do, we know the task at hand. We’re just grinding every day.
“This is what we play for, this is what we live for — important games late in the year. A little bit more fun being in Yankee Stadium, a little bit of enemy territory. Any time you can come in here and take two out of three, it’s big.”