Healthy outlook on Sale Nunez back in there
Sox think shoulder not an issue
Two days later, the Red Sox remain certain that Chris Sale’s disastrous start on Wednesday had nothing to do with shoulder inflammation that kept him out more than a month.
Instead, they think he’s just rusty.
Sale admitted after his start that his mechanics were out of whack and the flaw was “obvious when you break it down and look at it.”
Yesterday, manager Alex Cora said it had to do with Sale’s extension and how he wasn’t creating the arm angle that leads to uncomfortable at-bats for hitters.
“It’s a big difference with him,” Cora said. “Think about him extending, regardless of the velocity. It’s a different angle and with him and the kid from Tampa, Blake Snell, they are the most uncomfortable angle from the left side in the big leagues. So when he can create that, it’s more with the fastball actually. It comes, that fastball up, it’s a late decision and you don’t see it well.
“Obviously the slider has been playing lately, even though the velocity is not where it was in the summer. It becomes a lot better. We’ll see where we are with that. Obviously, we expect him to fix and be ready for October.”
Cora hasn’t announced his playoff rotation but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said on MLB Network radio this week that Sale would be starting Game 1 of the Division Series next Friday.
Sale expects to throw on the side before then in an attempt to rediscover his form.
“Just not really driving off my lower half and really create that torque I have in the past,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve got extended time now to kind of figure out what we need to do and we’ll go from there.”
Cora said the team is confident Sale’s shoulder is healthy.
“I don’t feel that’s the reason,” Cora said yesterday. “We’ve been talking about it the whole time and we don’t feel it’s the shoulder. His mechanics were way off in the first outing, probably, they got better, then all of the sudden last one it wasn’t there. But we don’t feel it has anything to do with the shoulder.”
In case it Happ-ens
With J.A. Happ on the mound for the Yankees last night, and likely to start against the Red Sox again next week if the Yanks advance to the ALDS, the Sox rolled out most of their regulars against the lefty who has given them a lot of trouble in the past.
Jackie Bradley Jr. was the only one noticeably absent, while Cora chose Blake Swihart behind the plate.
Cora expects most of the regulars to play this weekend.
“Mookie (Betts) might play two out of three,” he said. “Jackie will play two out of three. Same with (Andrew Benintendi). J.D. (Martinez) probably gets a lot of at-bats because that’s who he is. He likes that. (Today), Christian (Vazquez) is starting behind the plate. Sandy (Leon) will start (tomorrow). I haven’t mapped it out as far as who we’re going to play but you’ll see most of the guys playing the whole weekend.”
Eduardo Nunez (knee, hamstring) returned to the lineup for the first time in more than a week.
He was at the DH spot while Martinez played right field. Rafael Devers continues to get the reps at third base.
Nunez will “probably play defense (at third, tomorrow) and then we have a few things mapped out for the week,” Cora said. “So we’ll see how it goes (last night) first, to run around the bases, to see where he’s at.” …
There are two spots on the playoff roster still up for grabs.
Cora said he’s leaning toward using 14 position players and 11 pitchers.
Whether Nathan Eovaldi or Eduardo Rodriguez starts Game 4 (presumably Rick Porcello will start Game 3) depends on the matchup.
“I think so,” Cora said. “We’re still looking for information from the A’s.”
Judge No. 1
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has the most popular jersey in MLB for the second consecutive season.
The top five were: Judge, Jose Altuve, Javier Baez, Clayton Kershaw and Betts. …
Gary Sanchez and Aaron Hicks each went deep early in last night’s game, giving the Yankees 262 homers on the season — the secondmost all-time. Only the 1997 Mariners (264) had more.