Sox take foot off gas
Sale hits 101 mph, bats hit brake
The Red Sox took a 1-0 loss to the lowly Chicago White Sox last night.
It was the product of fielding a lineup that included neither Mookie Betts nor J.D. Martinez, both out with inju- ries, and running into a pitcher having a break- out season in Dylan Covey, who threw six scoreless innings.
Maybe this one game will come back to bite them in the long term. As it is, the Yankees were 4-1 winners over the Mets last night and in the short term flipped places in the division with the Red Sox, who began the day a half-game up in the standings but now trail the Pinstripes by a half-game.
It’s also possible the Red Sox might look back at this game as one that opened their eyes to what’s possible from their No. 1 starter.
For the first time in his career, Chris Sale threw a pitch at 101 mph.
“Give me two extra days (of rest), I hope and think that I can get like that every time,” said Sale, who hadn’t pitched since last Friday. “I had a couple extra work days this week, so I was able to get an extended bullpen in and work on some stuff, get back to what I needed to do. Added rest doesn’t hurt anybody.”
On his way to eight splendid innings in which he allowed just one run on six hits while striking out 10, the well-rested Sale returned to triple digits.
According to Brooks Baseball, the fastest pitch he had thrown in his career was 100.24 mph. He hadn’t touched 100 mph since he was pitching out of the bullpen for the White Sox back in 2010.
Plenty of pitchers these days throw 100 mph. Few of them do it out of the rotation.
Facing Daniel Palka in the sixth inning, Sale started him with a slider and then went fastball-fastball-fastball at 99 mph, 99 mph and 100.3 mph to strike him out. It was the hardest pitch by a starter on a swinging strikeout this year, according to MLB.com. And he still went on to touch 101 mph.
And it wasn’t just occasional heat; he averaged 98.5 mph on his four-seam fastball, the highest average fastball velocity he’s shown since 2011. “The weather and the rest, I think a combination of everything,” said manager Alex Cora. “He made some adjustments throughout the week. The one thing for sure, when we talked about the plan for this week, they received it with open arms. That was good to see. We always talk about resetting the bullpen, I think we reset the rotation. I do feel that they’re good to go now all the way to the AllStar break.”
The only run scored in the seventh inning, when Sale threw a fastball low and outside that Kevan Smith was able to guide to right field. The ball bounced once and then leaped over the wall down the first-base line for a ground-rule double.
Two batters later, Trayce Thompson got a 99-mph heater over the plate, perhaps Sale’s only mistake, and hit a line drive for an RBI single. Ballgame. “Everyone would love to have 10 runs a game but shoot, look at my last two starts, I flat-out sucked,” Sale said. “So I’m not going to sit here and point fingers at anybody. Would I like to have won this game? Absolutely. So would everybody else in here. Kind of selfish of me to say something like that, especially looking at my last two leading up to this one.
“Hey, come in ready tomorrow. This kind of stuff happens. We’re not saying this is who we are. This doesn’t define us in any way. Just had an off-night. It happens. Just come in ready to go tomorrow.”
Covey was in control for Chicago and the Red Sox could do little offensively without their two best hitters. The red-hot Andrew Benintendi doubled to start the game, but went 0-for-3 his next three times up. Rafael Devers added a fly-ball double off the Green Monster later but never scored. Xander Bogaerts had a single. That was it.
Covey was selected 14th overall in the 2010 draft but didn’t sign; Sale was drafted 13th overall that year.
“He probably should’ve been taken one pick before me,” Sale said. “Heck of a night though.”
The Sox have used a pair of catchers, Christian Vazquez and Blake Swihart, as their designated hitters over the last two nights and not seen any reward for doing so. Vazquez was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout on Thursday and Swihart was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts last night.
At least their ace showed them something. The plan all along was for Sale to take it slow in spring training, not push himself too hard early in the year and save gas for mid- and lateseason games.
He’s never thrown gas like that.