Another major fail by Sale
Sox lefty roughed up by Dodgers
DODGERS 11 RED SOX 2
The last time Chris Sale pitched against the Dodgers, he clinched a World Series title for the Red Sox with a scoreless ninth inning punctuated by a nasty strikeout of Manny Machado, sending his teammates into celebration at Dodger Stadium last October.
The Red Sox ace has certainly seen better days.
Sale has had a nightmarish 2019 season, and neither the All-Star break or his favorite catcher could help stop it. The lefty lasted just 4⅔ innings last night, and he gave up five runs for a third straight start as he dug the Red Sox another hole they couldn’t pull out of in an 11-2 loss to the Dodgers at Fenway Park.
David Price will face Hyun-Jin Ryu in the rubber game of the World Series rematch tonight.
Alex Cora did Sale a solid, making a late-night decision Friday to pair him with catcher Sandy Leon, who the ace is historically more comfortable with, but it didn’t seem to matter. Sale wasn’t hit hard early but labored through the first two innings at an inefficient 43 pitches after falling behind 1-0 in the first.
No catcher — Leon or Christian Vazquez — was going to help Sale with his struggling fastball.
The lefty came out firing at 96 mph in the first, but it dipped quickly. His fastball dropped to the low 90s by the third inning, and the Dodgers made him pay for it. Sale’s first pitch to Justin Turner was a weak 90.9 mph two-seamer that he clobbered it to the light tower in left field.
The Red Sox were mostly shut down by Dodgers starter Ross Stripling until Xander Bogaerts got one back by lifting his 19th homer of the season to left to make it 2-1. But needing a shutdown inning from their ace, they didn’t get one.
Sale instead gave up a pair of baserunners — a single to Kike Hernandez, then hitting Austin Barnes with a pitch — to start the fifth before Turner smacked an RBI double to make it 3-1. After a mound visit from Dana LeVangie, Sale surrendered a two-run double to David Freese down the left-field line. After facing one more batter, his night was finished.
The start marked the seventh time this season Sale has given up at least four runs after doing so just twice last season. His ERA jumped to 4.27 while his record dropped to an embarrassing 3-9. The Red Sox (50-42) are 6-13 this season when Sale pitches.
Fenway Park continued to be a house of horrors for him, too. Sale is winless in his last 13 starts at home, where he hasn’t recorded a regular-season win since July 11, 2018.
The Red Sox offense didn’t do him any favors, either. It scratched across just four hits against Stripling, and couldn’t take advantage of opportunities against LA’s bullpen. Joe Kelly made his Fenway return in an erratic sixth as he put runners on second and third, but Vazquez, who came to the plate as the tying run, struck out swinging to end the threat.
The bullpen couldn’t keep it close either as it pitched them out of the game in the seventh.
Steven Wright gave up back-to-back homers to Cody Bellinger and A.J. Pollock before he left the game with a right foot contusion when he was hit with a line drive. Marcus Walden was summoned quickly but he couldn’t escape the damage. Vazquez made a throwing error that allowed a runner to score before Barnes hit an RBI triple.
It was ugly all the way around.
The Dodgers added on another in the eighth when Bellinger hit a sacrifice fly to score Turner, and Max Muncy hit a homer in the ninth.