Sale takes a small step
Expected to pitch again on Thursday
FORT MYERS — A voice from behind the batting cage informed, “three more,” to let Chris Sale know when to stop throwing to hitters for the first time since Aug. 13.
Three pitches later, on Sale’s 15th offering, minor league power-hitting prospect Josh Ockimey laid into one. Sale turned to look over his left shoulder, said, “Geez,” and watched the ball easily clear the fence in right field.
“We’ll end on that one,” Sale said, drawing a chuckle from those watching as he walked off the mound on Field 1 at the Red Sox spring training complex.
Sale was looking forward to using the six-plus weeks of spring training to build his arm strength for what surely would have been an Opening Day start in Toronto until a bout with pneumonia set him behind for two weeks. The plan now calls for Sale to start the season on the injured list.
Standing outside the Red Sox clubhouse before the start of Sunday’s exhibition game against the Braves, first-year pitching coach Dave Bush shared his impressions of Sale’s first baby step toward preparing for the 2020 season.
“I thought he looked good,” Bush said.
Sale prepared for his 15 pitches with the full pregame routine of long toss and a bullpen warm-up.
“He was excited,” Bush said. “He’s been itching to do it for a while.”
After three days of rest,
Sale is scheduled to throw to hitters again Thursday, adding a second 15-pitch set with a rest between sets to simulate game conditions. The next step would be starting an exhibition game.
“He feels healthy. All the issues he had last year are behind him at this point,” Bush said. “The buildup is the same as it would be for any other pitcher and that’s probably the most important thing. … Other than being delayed for being sick, his progression is on track and on time with where I’d expect it to be. That will allow him, when he’s ready, to go into the season without any restrictions and he can pitch and be the guy he wants to be.”
Jantzen Witte, the righthanded hitter who faced Sale, at one point said, “Nice pitch.”
If Sale makes his exhibition debut on the fifth day after his second batting practice session and pitches every fifth day after that, he could get in six starts and then make his regular season debut on four days’ rest on April 9 in the opener of a three-game series in Seattle. The earliest he could be activated would be April 7. The Red Sox host the Rays that day.
After shoulder inflammation forced Sale onto the disabled list late in the 2018 season, he made his 2019 debut in Seattle, and was rocked for seven earned runs in three innings. He allowed three home runs on his way to 24 gopher balls in 147⅓ innings for the season.
The 11 starts Sale made in May and June were up to his elite standards, but before and after that, he struggled. The scaled-back workload in spring training for the starting pitchers who logged a lot of innings in 2018, when the Red Sox played an extra month on the way to winning their fourth World Series of the 21st century, backfired. Uneven performances after his strong two months were the rule until he went on the IL.
He’s not the only member of the rotation looking to bounce back from a rough second half to the season. Sale, Nathan Eovaldi and Martin Perez combined to go 7-8 with a 5.95 ERA in the second half of the season.
Eovaldi was among teammates watching Sale’s session on the mound.
“I thought he was great,” Eovaldi said. “His fastball’s coming on good, changeup, sliders were nasty like always. I know he wanted to throw a couple more for strikes, but he looked good out there. It was fun out there to see him out there and competing. He had that fire in him. He even yelled at himself a bit.”